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Post Info TOPIC: Fires make Laos an air pollution hotspot
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Fires make Laos an air pollution hotspot
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Fires make Laos an air pollution hotspot
 
Vientiane Times, 17 March 2010
 
Laos has a disproportionate number of hotspots - areas of localised
fire - compared to other countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion
(GMS), and needs to take measures to improve air quality.
 
In images captured by a satellite camera from Singapore, Laos was
shown to be dotted with red areas, which indicate fire.
 
“Laos is very hot during the dry season,” the Director of the GMS
National Secretariat of the Water Resources and Environment
Administration, Mrs Keobang A Keola, said yesterday.
 
To decrease the number of h otspots in Laos, the Pollution Control
Department of the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
sent a mobile air quality surveying unit to Laos on Monday.
 
The mobile unit travelled from Nong Khai province in Thailand to the
Meteorology and Hydrology Station in Vangvieng district, Vientiane
province.
 
Thailand has been implementing measures to reduce air pollution for 15
years in an effort to clean up the air in Bangkok and other Thai
cities.
 
The air quality surveying unit will work in Laos for three months
before passing on its findings to the GMS National Secretariat.
 
“We will promote and improve the air quality of our country by sharing
experiences with Thailand,” Mrs Keobang said.
 
Most hotspots in Laos stem from forest fires and slash-and-burn
cultivation during the dry season. However, the government is
continuing to reduce the burning and clearing of land for upland rice
production.
 
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the total area
used for slash-and-burn farming throughout the country was 76,000
hectares two years ago. This has now dropped to about 48,000 hectares.
 
The ministry has allocated land to farmers in about 7,130 villages in
the provinces to help put an end to shifting cultivation.
 
In Laos, most fires occur in March and April. Smoke and ash from
forest fires and slash-and-burn cultivation pollutes the air and can
have harmful effects on health.
 
Air quality management is still a major challenge throughout Asia.
Fast-growing economies and continued urbanisation have increased the
need for mobility in the region, resulting in high levels of air
pollution from transport, industry and other sources.

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