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| Sunday, 19 October 2003 |
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Bangkok's pollution blues : The sky's the limit by Shanika Sriyananda Foreigners wonder and natives take a deep breath when they see the light grey haze stretching over the sky of Bangkok city, surrounded by skyscrapers and flyovers. It is a constant reminder for Thailand's green movement that the 'sky is still not blue'. 'Clean air for breathing' was one of Thailand's serious environmental problems some years back and even now to some extent. Being the commercial hub, air of Bangkok city was much more seriously polluted than Sri Lanka years ago due to an increasing number of motor vehicles, power plants, factories, construction work, forest fires, agricultural burning and even due to open cooking, which is one of the main livelihoods of Bangkok city dwellers. Two-stroke motorcycles, diesel trucks and aging buses topped the sources of pollution. Children were at risk due to inhalation of tiny carcinogenic substances floating in the polluted air. The concentration of particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides, ground level of ozone, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and lead were high. Non-urban areas were also significantly polluted due to agricultural burning, which emitted particulate matter. Sri Lanka, which is to enforce air emission standards next year, can learn some lessons from Thailand. Sri Lanka has expertise, standards for air emission, monitoring facilities and law enforcement authorities but we lack enough state-of-the art equipment to do road side testing to 'catch' belching vehicles. The need of the hour is to increase public awareness about air pollution. Though, Thailand's air is much better now than before perception of ordinary people on air quality differ. They are well aware of the problem and also the measures taken by the State to 'clean the air' but dissatisfied with the law enforcement, which they think it is weak and inconsistent. Those who witnessed the vehicle emission violations do not know where to lodge their complaint and some think that it is not their duty. Those who do not trust the law enforcement authorities say even after they complained the authorities would not take any action. Decades ago Thai researchers found that the IQ levels of children had dropped significantly due to constant inhalation of bad air. According to statistics of the Pollution Control Department (PCD), Thailand, over one million people have become victims of air pollution related illnesses ranging from irritation and odour to acute and long-term lung impairment and cardiac problems. This prompted the Thailand authorities and eco-groups to strengthen the struggle for quality air. However, the champions of the campaign to free the country's air from toxic substances, struggled for the last 15 years to achieve the present progress and today it ranks ahead of Beijing, Jakarta, New Delhi and Manila 'Dr. Supat Wangwongwatana, Chairman Clean Air Initiatives for Asian Cities, who is one of the happiest advocates of this campaigns in this endeavour, struggled for the last 25 years to curb air pollution in Bangkok city. In an interview with the 'Sunday Observer' he said that public has to put the pressure on politicians to implement laws in this regard. Strong public awareness campaigns were vital to get public support, he said. A decade ago, the estimated health costs of exposure to lead, particulate matter and carbon monoxide in Bangkok were equivalent to between 8 and 10 percent of urban annual income and lead was completely phased out in 1995. The research findings became a strong wake-up call to launch a series of successful actions, including enactment of environmental law in 1992, complete phase-out of leaded gasoline by 1995, improving fuel quality and engine specifications, curbing pollution from power plants, moving enterprises to cleaner production practices, tightening construction standards, improving public transport and substantially reducing the use of ozone depleting substances. Dr. Supat said that setting up of a reliable pollutant inventory to identify the exact source of pollution is one major step towards effective policy formulation and enforcement. ' Vehicle growth' is one major problem that Thailand is yet to tackle. The annual vehicle growth rate is 15 percent with over 1,000 new vehicles daily. There are over 54 million vehicles registered in Bangkok and 24.5 million were registered in 2002. Today, motorcycles dominate Thai roads and account for three quarters of the vehicles. I travelled to Thailand, recently, with the Sri Lankan study team on air emission quality. The tour was sponsored by USAID/US - Asia Environmental Partnership Programme(US-AEP) and I had the opportunity to observe a roadside inspection held to 'catch' vehicles belching black smoke. The Thai inspection team comprised Traffic Police, Pollution Control Department, Bangkok Metropolitan Agency (BMA) and the Land Transport Department, the four bodies that work in unity to maintain quality air. All vehicles in Bangkok city will be screened and violators will be given a sticker. The owner has to correct the fault within 30 days and produce the vehicle for a test and if it fails again the owner will be asked to repair it within 30 days. If the owner still ignores the order, an 'Absolutely prohibited to drive ' sticker will be pasted. According to PCD over 300,000 vehicles fail the test and are asked to repair the fault.The reputed garages in Thailand have been given authority to do the engine testing for small vehicles and they test for noise, black smoke and Co2. The faults are corrected by the garage technicians. The BMA's project to reduce the black smoke emission from diesel vehicles will inspect vehicles for every 6 months and vehicles which exceed the standard will be continuously monitor for six months till the fault is rectified. PCD, which monitors the key air pollutants, runs 71 monitoring sites in 19 provinces, gives air quality daily and the information on atmospheric pollutants. As a result of awareness raising programmes, over 80 percent of motorcycles are run on four stroke engines today, cause less environmental pollution and have better fuel efficiency. Encouraging the buyers to purchase four-stroke motorcycles, the Thai Federation of Industry hopes to phase out highly polluting two stroke motorcycles from the roads. 'Tuk Tuk'- three-wheelers, one of Bangkok's tourist attractions, which were operated on two stroke and one of the biggest air polluters, are now converted to LP gas and limited to 10,000. Residents of Bangkok say the major environmental problem is air pollution and blame the motorists for violating vehicle emission law. Public complaints on air pollution incidents top the list of sources of environmental pollution. Bangkok residents, who do not believe the air quality experts' findings that Bangkok's air quality is improving, are of the view that the situation is deteriorating or remains the same. Despite the commendable measurers taken by the Thai environmental authorities to make the country's sky blue and scientific justifications of the PCD monitoring stations which state that the toxic air pollutants have been declined, the country's air is still filled with toxic pollutants, especially particulate matters (PM), carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxides. The concentration of these air pollutants is much more severe in traffic corridors and urban areas. Particulate matter still exceeds the standards while Nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbon and ozone levels are also increasing. Diesel trucks, diesel pickup trucks and aging buses are large emitters of toxic air pollutants that need to be controlled or taken off the roads. Thailand government is still spending increasing amounts on air pollution reduction, prevention and control. The budget allocation was over US $ 50 million in the year 2000. Champions of the campaign can only hope that with the new programmes on the cards, the day that the Thailand's sky turns blue is getting nearer. |
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