Thai PM concerned over haze and drought

PHUKET, March 20 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has asked people in eight northern Thai provinces to stop burning weeds to solve haze-related problems. Acting Government Spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ad told journalists, after the Cabinet mobile meeting in the southern resort Phuket province on Tuesday, that Premier Yingluck expressed her concerns over the critical haze situation in the Thai North currently and ordered the Ministries of Interior and Public Health to jointly solve the haze-related problems, suggesting that a solution is to arrest those who set fires outdoors and worsen haze. Anusorn said that the prime minister also expressed her concerns over the amount of reserved water at local dams, as there have been more clear signs of drought this year, instead of flooding, and instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the National Water Resources and Flood Policy Committee to manage the amount of water reserves well to protect local consumers and farmers during the dry season. Meanwhile, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut acknowledged that the haze problems have become worse in the Thai North over the past couple of days, when haze levels have harmfully exceeded 200 micrograms per cubic meter of air in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son provinces and even 300-400 micrograms per cubic meter of air in some areas in the provinces. Theera said that he has ordered rainmaking officials to set up their station in Chiang Mai to continue relieving haze, after they started the mission on February 27, applying the “Black Hole” technique advised by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. According to the minister, the rainmaking operations had reduced haze to normal levels recently but local people are to be convinced not to set fires in forests and plantations, as they are the root cause of haze in the Thai North. (TNA)