An Air Asia plane descends towards Chiang Mai International Airport amid high levels of air pollution in Chiang Mai on April 10, 2023. (Photo: AFP) Hanoi (VNA) – A court in Thailand on January 19 ordered the government to come up with an urgent plan to curb air pollution within 90 days, as the country braces for its annual peak of noxious haze.
Air quality plummets in Thailand in the early this month as smoke from farmers burning stubble adds to industrial emissions and vehicle exhaust fumes.
Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai ranked among the world's most polluted cities on some days last year, prompting a group of people to bring a legal case to get the government to act.
The Chiang Mai administrative court on January 19 ordered Thailand’s National Environmental Commission to present "preventive methods to solve pollution both short and long term" within 90 days.
The court ruled that the previous government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha had not moved quickly enough to tackle pollution.
The government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, which took over last August, has promised to tackle air pollution as a "national agenda"./.
