CHIANG MAI: A Move Forward Party (MFP)-led government will aim to have Chiang Mai as the location for an Asean centre aimed at tackling high levels of PM2.5 pollution.
Prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat discussed the matter on Thursday with civil society groups as well as private and business sectors affected by the province's long-overdue problem with pollution.
Mr Pita said there needs to be more local, national and international cooperation in addressing the issue, given its scale.
He talked about Asean's cooperation plan to deal with international pollution problems in the region, which was signed in 2004, but nothing concrete has come from it yet.
"We can use the plan as it also states establishing an Asean centre to fight the region's pollution. I will push for establishing the centre in Chiang Mai," he said.
Mr Pita also promised to use the International Pollution Fund regarding the matter if he is the next prime minister. He added that a suitable set of laws, including the long-awaited Clean Air Act, must be in place.
According to three financial institutes' assessments, pollution caused at least 10 billion baht in damage to the provincial economy, contrasting with an 85 million baht budget the authorities set aside each year to fight it.
Mr Pita said that since the issue has never been solved, such a budget appears to have been wasted.
He said one of the challenges is to restructure the budgeting process or allocate enough budget to help solve the problem.
Somphon Anurakwanapoom, a Mae Chaem civil network representative, said that air pollution needs to be fixed as fast as possible.
Mr Somphon said he hoped that Mr Pita's commitment to solving it would continue.
