Farmers continue to flout laws banning the burning of waste crops which is adding to toxic air pollution in Thailand.<br /><br />Authorities issued an order this month not to set alight fields in a desperate attempt to prevent the country's rising air pollution.<br /><br />But footage from yesterday (Jan 19) in Nakhon Sawan, north-central Thailand, shows fire raging in a field of sugar cane husks, a practice known as 'slash-and-burn' or 'fire-fallow cultivation', which is cheaper for farmers than collecting the shells of harvested crops.<br /><br />Clouds of smoke from rural areas hang in the low-pressure, still and dry atmosphere before blanketing large cities such as Bangkok, where levels of dangerous PM 2.5 articles have soared. <br /><br />One farmer from the Nakhon Sawang region has been arrested but authorities are warning others to stop burning fields.<br /><br />Provincial governor Attaporn Singhawichai said that low pressure combined with a lack of wind and rain keeps the pollution trapped in the air.<br /><br />He said: "There is a low-pressure system in the area so the air is not freely flowing. Burning crops adds smoke and dust in the air, which takes a long time to dissipate.<br /><br />"We arrested the violating farmer to send a signal out to other farmers not to try to burn their crops again.<br /><br />"I am worried about the health of the people in the province. They have been suffering from severe air pollution for a number of weeks, so we need to be serious about enforcing the banning order."
