BMA under fire for ‘inaction over dust pollution’

A city councillor has accused the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) of being weak in its efforts to curb potentially harmful ultra-fine dust levels in the city.

Though the BMA has launched measures to deal with invisible pollutants and received funding to carry them out, city officials tackling the problem appear not to be taking their jobs seriously, city councillor Warin Detchaoren told a Bangkok City Council meeting yesterday.

He said the ultra-fine dust level, also known as particulate matter 2.5, in Bangkok was recently found to have risen to 25 microgrammes per cubic metre. The World Health Organisation sets a safe level of PM 2.5 — which refers to dust particles at only 2.5 micrometres in diameter — at a maximum 10 microgrammes a cubic metre, accordng to Mr Warin.

The level is predicted to become even worse in the summer. The BMA has been urged to prepare better measures to tackle the issue before summer begins in March.

The dust, which is much less than the width of a single human hair, is considered dangerous as it can easily lodge in the lungs, causing severe respiratory illnesses or aggravate symptoms in people already suffering from such diseases.

Mr Warin yesterday listed various measures the BMA could take to tackle the problem as he spoke at the city council meeting, also attended by BMA executives. They included tighter controls on pollution sources such as construction sites, fumebelching vehicles and the unregulated burning of garbage in city suburbs.

City Hall’s Environment Department has spent millions of baht installing equipment to detect dust and noise pollution levels. However, Mr Warin said city authorities have only reported the amounts of dust and noise which the equipment has detected.

He accused them of saying nothing on what they intend to do about the problems.

Over the past year, he said he has seen hardly any effort to deal with the dust.

In response, Deputy Bangkok governor Chakkaphan Phewngam said city officials have carried out effective measures in recent years to deal with pollution.

The city has allocated a 24.5-millionbaht for this year to hire a firm to oversee and maintain the pollution detection system following the expiry of the previous contractor’s contract, he said.

The city has also instructed all district officials to take their duties in addressing pollution more seriously, the deputy governor said. All 50 district offices are also required to regularly stage big community cleaning days, he said.