Tuesday, November 12, 2024
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Annual pollution woes begin again

It may not be immediately obvious, given how grey the skies have been over the past couple of days, but the southwest monsoon has begun to shift, signalling the coming end to the rainy season.

This used to be a cause for celebration — the drier months meant crops could ripen without rotting, and the cooler winds brought respite for weary workers out in the fields.

These days, unfortunately, the cooler months bring more fury than fanfare. The slight drop in temperature means an area of low pressure will soon form over the entire country, sucking in and trapping atmospheric pollutants generated both within the country and elsewhere in the region, until the season begins to shift once more.

To most Thais, the lower temperatures are a reminder to stock up on face masks and air purifier filters — tell-tale signs that air quality across the country is about to plunge. To those in the government, however, it is a cue to begin the yearly song and dance on who to blame for the seasonal spike in pollution and what they plan to do about it this time around.

In the past, the agricultural sector served as the scapegoat. It was convenient to lay the blame on an entire industry and everyone knows sectoral changes take time to implement, so public expectations could be kept to a minimum.

The seasonality of the problem complicates things further. As soon as the winds start to shift, atmospheric pollution significantly plunges, and suddenly air pollution isn’t something the public is too worried about.

As a result, instead of significant policy changes which address the problem at its roots, what the nation gets each year, is a series of aggressive pledges which cannot be practically implemented.

This time around, however, the government under Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin won’t be able to rely on the same old strategy, for two main reasons.

First, the El Nino southern oscillation is in full effect, which means vast swathes of the country are already experiencing drier-than-usual conditions.

In fact, the Royal Irrigation Department has predicted that by the official end of the rainy season in November, if current rain trends continue, the nation’s four biggest dams, namely Bhumibol Dam in Tak, Sirikit Dam in Uttaradit, Kwai Noi Bamrung Dan Dam in Phitsanulok and Pasak Jolasid in Lop Buri, would only hold 6.8 billion cubic metres of water, about 7.7 billion less than in 2022.

With 16.5 million rais of arable land estimated to be affected if the rains do not pick up before the end of next month, there is an increased risk of field fires adding to the pollution caused by deliberate burning to clear fields off harvest by-products this year.

Second, the National Environmental Board (NEB) has lowered the safe threshold for PM2.5 exposure to 37.5 microgrammes per cubic metre, down from 50μg/m3, back in June. The more stringent standards have increased the public’s expectations of the government, so relying on the same old strategy of proclaiming a ban on open burning without adequately enforcing it, then incorrectly blaming the smog on small-scale farmers, simply won’t cut it this time.

With PM2.5 concentrations already on the rise in Bangkok — the capital was ranked the world’s 10th most polluted city on Friday, according to the air quality monitoring firm IQAir, months before the burnings begin — City Hall was among the first to act.

In a press conference last week, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) said that since over 70% of the city’s airborne pollutants are generated by ageing, diesel-fuelled vehicles, authorities will ramp up emissions checks on older private vehicles. To date, governor Chadchart Sittipunt said, over 135,000 vehicles have been checked, over 2,000 of which failed the emissions test.

He didn’t say, however, how authorities plan to expand the checks to cover all vehicles within the city proper. He also failed to say if any of 2,000 vehicles which failed the test were city buses, many of which look like they were taken straight out of a Bollywood movie from the 70s.

Is the BMA going to require all vehicles to pass stringent emission checks before their registrations can be renewed? Or will authorities carry out spot checks in areas with severe pollution? What would be the consequences of failing the test, considering the gravity of the situation?

Perhaps, before taking aim at older vehicles on the road — many of which are on the road out of economic necessity, not vanity — authorities should take a good look at the options they are providing.

The absence of a clear, executable plan will make the simplest goal harder to achieve, even if the solution to the problem is staring us in the face. What the government needs to do now is get organised and identify concrete steps towards the solution, but doing so will require commitment and real efforts from all stakeholders.

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