BANGKOK, 20 March 2015 – The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has established a war room on the haze situation in the North while setting a target to restore normalcy by the end of April.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Gen Dapong Rattanasuwan has convened an urgent meeting with six relevant ministries and two organizations in a joint effort to find solutions to the smoke haze problem in the northern region which has been threatening the health of local residents. As the situation is expected to worsen, the meeting agreed to open a war room to specifically oversee the matter.
The war room will begin its duty on March 23 and sets out to bring the particulate matter reading in the upper part of the country back to its normal level before April 30. It will also be required to submit a progress report to the Prime Minister on a daily basis. After the first week of operation, the war room will be evaluated on its ability to mitigate the problem.
In the meantime, the Third Army Area is to continue mobilizing its personnel and helicopters to extinguish forest fires while provincial governors and district chiefs will be responsible for preventing burning activities in their respective areas.
Officials from the Interior Ministry have been dispatched to raise residents’ awareness of the dangers of the slash-and-burn practice. At the same time, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is temporarily prohibiting villagers from entering local forest reserves for foraging purpose, on fear that they would trigger more fires which would exacerbate the smog problem.
