A group of Chiang Mai residents were seen holding banners demanding a solution to the city’s chronic air pollution problems at several locations, criticizing the centralized government’s ineffectiveness at solving the problem and decentralization so that local communities can handle forest fire.
Their banners contain messages such as “Clean air cannot be made by a centralized state. Give power back to local community to handle forest fire”; “Centralization = air pollution guaranteed”; and “You spent 10 years breathing in dust. Stop attacking each other and question the centralized state.”
The northern provinces of Thailand have been facing a severe air pollution issue for the past week, with Chiang Mai ranking among the most polluted cities in the world.
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