In Thailand, the inhabitants of the big city in the north of the country, Chiang Mai, are asked to stay at home, while the city is classified, since Friday April 7, as the most polluted in the world.
With our correspondent in Bangkok, Carol Isoux
A thick layer of gray particles visible to the naked eye has covered the city of Chiang Mai for a few days. In question, the peasant burns and gigantic forest fires around the second city of the country, nicknamed “the Rose of the North”, combined with the smoke from vehicles and industrial activity.
The tourist town had a rate of PM 2.5 fine particles, so small that they can seep into the blood, of 290 micrograms per cubic meter on Friday afternoon, according to IQAir. This represents nearly 70 times the maximum threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO), said the Swiss air quality monitoring organization.
Call for telework
As a result of this new episode of air pollution, on Friday, the governor of Chiang Mai province, Nirat Pongsittitavorn, asked the population to work remotely ” to protect themselves and reduce the impact on health ” polluted air, in a press release.
It is not the first year that Chiang Mai has been ranked first among the most polluted cities in the world, even ahead of the major Indian and Chinese cities, but the period of the pandemic had offered breathing space to its 130,000 inhabitants.
Citizen mobilization
A citizen mobilization has however taken place in the country, a group of activists having even submitted to Parliament a text, the Clean Air Act, to make the Thai government face up to its responsibilities.
The text has been rejected several times by the Prime Minister’s office, while the issue of air pollution is timidly making its way among the campaign themes of certain candidates in the legislative elections which will take place in a month.
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