Air quality of Southeast Asia cities

News #256: Cleaning up the roads of Cambodia, Phnom Penh Metro, Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed railway, 2 new Singapore MRT lines proposed, Hanoi metro updates

Author

James Clark
March 12, 2025

The Future Southeast Asia Newsletter features transport and urban development news in Southeast Asia, edited by James Clark.

Hello from Da Lat in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. I was in Bao Loc this week, which is becoming a popular highlands getaway from Saigon. Bao Loc is between Saigon and Da Lat, but nowhere near as developed as Da Lat.

This week’s theme is clean roads and clean air. I wrote about the campaign to clean the plastic waste on Cambodia’s roads, and a new list ranks the worst cities for air pollution.

Latest articles at Future Southeast Asia

What Cambodia can learn from other countries about cleaning up plastic waste on national roads.

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Heritage buildings update, the temple-shaped National Bank building, the fake Paris on Diamond Island, bad urban planning on the Tonle Sap riverfront, a new urban area rising on a disappeared lake, the bird nest towers, and booming BKK1

Vietnam has an ambitious plan to build a high-speed railway. Here is what Vietnam can learn from the Laos-China Railway, the Bangkok-Nong Khai High-Speed Railway, the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad HSR.

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News

This list is from the 2024 IQAir World Air Quality Report. While India and China dominate the list, many cities in Southeast Asia are among the worst. Hanoi is consistently the worst, while Chiang Mai often tops the list during the burning season (March- April).

IQAir have an interactive global map of 2024 PM2.5 concentrations by city, so you can zoom in and see the worst cities in Southeast Asia.

Interactive global map of 2024 PM2.5 concentrations by city

🇧🇳 Brunei

🇰🇭 Cambodia

"Families promised a better future at relocation sites offered by a Chinese developer now struggle with infertile land, disappearing jobs and unfulfilled development pledges."

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Fighting floods, together [The Jakarta Post]

"Complacency is at the root of perennial flooding in Greater Jakarta, which essentially stems from unchecked urbanisation and poor urban planning, and normalising the disaster as an expected annual occurrence is akin to throwing in the towel."

🇱🇦 Laos

🇲🇾 Malaysia

"Environmentalists and transport advocates warn of irreversible damage as state pushes ahead with controversial Tanjung Bungah-Teluk Bahang road."

"In Malaysia, the push for urban renewal is risking the displacement of the very people the government says it wants to uplift."

"Exploring factors behind low MRT passenger numbers in Kuala Lumpur and strategies for growth."

This article and the accompanying video details everything wrong with the transit system serving KL.

 🇵🇭 Philippines

"Solutions include good data, planning, community engagement, and legal recourse."

🇸🇬 Singapore

🇹🇭 Thailand

"The deadline for completing the long-delayed first phase of the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail line from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima has been extended by another year."

"Airports of Thailand (AoT) has plans to expand Suvarnabhumi airport to accommodate 150 million passengers by 2033."

🇻🇳 Vietnam

"Land clearance for Ho Chi Minh City's second metro line, connecting Ben Thanh and Tham Luong, has been completed, paving the way for groundbreaking later this year."

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