Asean seeking haze solution

Straits Times 1 Jul 12;

Miri (Sarawak) - Asean countries will seek an urgent regional solution to transboundary haze this year in view of the dry season in August and September, Malaysia's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas has said.

The minister said he and his counterparts from Singapore and Brunei have agreed to meet ahead of a scheduled gathering on the haze problem in September, a Bernama report said yesterday.

Asean's 14th Meeting of the Technical Working Group on Transboundary Haze Pollution and the 14th Meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution are scheduled for September in Bali.

'Three of us agreed (during the Rio Earth Summit in Brazil last month) to meet earlier than the scheduled meeting in September,' he told reporters after chairing a meeting on the haze situation in Miri yesterday.

'We would like to bring it forward a lot earlier, so that we can review each other's strategies. The problem will get worse because the weather will be drier in August and September,' he said.

Haze blanketed the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding areas last month as smoke from several large fires blew in from Sumatra in Indonesia to peninsular Malaysia.

The haze season usually occurs each year from June to September, which is the dry season in Indonesia and also a time when farmers there clear land using the slash-and-burn method.

The worst episode of haze to hit the region was in 1997. Asean's efforts to tackle the annual haze problem saw nine of its members ink the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. Only Indonesia has yet to ratify the accord.