Quick meeting among ASEAN ministers needed if haze worsens

Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid Channel NewsAsia 20 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE: Hazy conditions continue to plague Singapore as a result of fires in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Singapore's Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said on Wednesday that ASEAN environment ministers may need to reconvene for a quick meeting to discuss additional measures to tackle the issue if the situation gets worse.

"Indonesia as you know is a member of the ministerial sub-committee meeting on transboundary haze, and if the situation worsen then there is maybe the possibility for us to reconvene a quick meeting so that we can explore what are the additional measures that we need to take," said Dr Yaacob.

Dr Yaacob said it is a matter that cannot be taken lightly and Singapore is ready to provide assistance in fire-fighting efforts.

He said Indonesia has been reminded of the need to do more in tackling the issue when ministers responsible for the environment and their representatives from ASEAN member states had met in Brunei on October 13 for the 6th meeting of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

The ministers reviewed national, sub-regional and regional activities to address land and forest fires in the region. ASEAN members states had pledged to remain vigilant and continuously monitor and implement haze preventive activities.

"We are a bit disappointed with what's happening, this is not the first time that we have informed the Indonesians that they should pay attention to the hotspots both in Sumatra and Borneo. And in fact, on many occasions, we have told the Indonesians, please take extra measures that this does not recur," said Dr Yaacob.

"But this has happened. And in fact last week, when we had our meeting in Brunei for the ASEAN Haze agreement, in fact we reminded the meeting, that we should remain vigilant, even though it is supposed to wetter than normal for this year. Whenever there is a dry spell, there is the tendency for people to burn so we pressed upon the Indonesians that they have to do more."

Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay said: "Indonesia has made attempts to get in funding to keep the forests, provided they don't burn them or destroy them.

"This is in its sense, the haze we have in the air, is evidence that Indonesia may have trouble fulfilling its promises if we give them money to keep their forests".

Dr Yaacob said Singapore would register concerns again perhaps on even strong terms to Indonesia if the situation worsened.

Meanwhile, he said Singapore is ready to assist Indonesia in fire-fighting effort.

"We cannot take this matter lightly and as I have said earlier, we want to press upon the Indonesians that they have to do something about this," he stressed.

Dr Yaacob was speaking at the sidelines of the launch of a new S$800 million power plant in Jurong Island where hazy conditions persisted.

As of Wednesday's noon, the three hour PSI reading was 72 - which is in the moderate range.

A PSI level above the 100 mark is considered unhealthy.

Dr Yaacob said Singapore will continue to monitor the situation and if needed, a health advisory will also be issued.

"We will continue to monitor the situation, I don't think we need to cut back on anything in terms of our daily activities , but for those who slightly sensitive to haze, I think they have to sort of curb a bit of their outdoor activities.

"Meanwhile, we will monitor the situation and if we need to issue a health advisory we will do so, so this is very important for us and NEA will continue to closely monitor the situation." - CNA/fa/wk

Disappointed over hotspots
Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 21 Oct 10;

A SINGAPORE minister has expressed disappointment at the recent sharp increase in hotspots in the region of Sumatra which has brought haze back to Singapore in recent days.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim on Wednesday said Singapore has asked the Indonesian authorities on several occasions to take extra measures to make sure the forest fires do not recur.

'It is a matter that cannot be taken lightly,' he told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of a new co-generation power plant by Powerseraya at Jurong Island on Wednesday, adding that Asean members had agreed to take steps at a recent meeting on the haze issue to emphasize the need for more vigilance against firestarters.

Dr Yaacob advised those more vulnerable to respiratory ailments to curb their outdoor activities following a worsening of the haze on Tuesday. If the situation gets worse, the authorities will consider issuing a health advisory, said Dr Yaacob. But for now, the Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) is in the moderate range, meaning no special precautions need to be taken. As at 3 pm on Wednesday, the PSI stood at 80.

Satellite pictures on Tuesday showed 202 'hot spots' in Sumatra, indicating where Indonesian farmers and plantation companies had set fires to clear large swathes of forests to get the land ready for the crop-plating season. The prevailing winds from the south-west carried the smoke to Singapore, said the National Environment Ministry.

Many areas in Malaysia were also blanketed in thick haze on Wednesday, with the air quality in Muar reaching an unhealthy level based on the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings compared with 51 other areas nationwide. Malaysia's Department of Environment said in a statement on Wednesday that the API readings at 11am showed 27 areas with moderate air quality and 23 areas with good-quality air.

Declining air quality have been reported over the last two days in several places such as in north Johor, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor, due to the haze brought in from Sumatra.

No let-up in Riau forest fires despite crackdown promises
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Straits Times 21 Oct 10;

JAKARTA: Forest fires in the Riau province on Sumatra island have continued unchecked, despite promises by the Indonesian government to crack down on land owners who set fire to their land, environmental activists said yesterday.

This is why thick smog has spread across the province in the past few weeks, they said, adding that land owners who wanted to clear forest land to plant oil palm trees were mostly responsible for the fires.

'A lot of the hot spots were in the concession areas,' said Ms Syamsidar, a World Wide Fund for Nature activist based in Riau province.

A hot spot is defined as a fire covering a hectare of land or larger, while concession areas are the land swathes that have been granted to a company for use for a period of time.

'The government must act and hold the land concession owners accountable. They have been given the right to use the land, thus are required to protect it,' Ms Syamsidar told The Straits Times.

Riau province and its surrounding areas have also been hit by the haze.

The coastal town of Dumai was blanketed in smog yesterday, forcing the Pinang Kampai Airport to halt operations for a few hours in the morning because of poor visibility.

But officials in the province said the situation had improved due to rainfall over the past two days.

In Pekanbaru, which is in central Riau, the visibility level at the international airport was 10km yesterday, compared with just 4km on Monday.

The local government on Tuesday asked Jakarta to carry out cloud seeding to increase rainfall over the area.

This would stop the forest fires from spreading, said Riau province deputy governor Mambang Mit, as quoted by online news website Detik.com.

Ms Syamsidar said that in the past two weeks, 1,302 hot spots had been detected throughout the province, with 445 in the concession areas. She linked this to the growth of the oil palm industry.

Indonesia is the world's largest producer of palm oil, which brings in huge revenue for the country. But large swathes of virgin forest have to be cleared for oil palm plantations.

Ms Syamsidar claimed some operators were illegal plantation owners who resorted to slash-and-burn techniques to clear the land, in order to cut costs.

But a senior Environment Ministry official told The Straits Times that most fires were the result of negligence on the part of people living in Riau, or occurred naturally due to dry weather and heat.

Mr Alfi Fahmi said there were many cases in which residents tossed cigarette butts on dry peatland, which catches fire easily.

But strict law enforcement has helped to lower the number of slash-and-burn cases, he added.