Indonesia has accepted Singapore's offer to fight the ongoing forest fires in Sumatra.
Channel NewsAsia 11 Sep 15;
SINGAPORE: Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen on Friday (Sep 11) said that Indonesia has accepted Singapore's help to deal with the haze situation.
He had contacted Indonesia's Defence Minister on Thursday (Sep 10) about the Singapore government's offer to assist Indonesia to fight the ongoing forest fires in Sumatra.
"We’ve offered our Charlies (C-130s) for cloud seeding, and helicopters, Chinooks, for large water buckets to douse the fires in Sumatra," said Dr Ng. "Thankfully the winds shifted this morning and the haze has come down. We have to find some way of bringing down the problem and I’m glad the Indonesian authorities are looking at it."
Indonesia said on Friday it will send more than 10,000 troops to fight the fire as well.
The National Environment Agency said that the number of hotspots detected in Sumatra increased to 328 on Thursday, up from 140 on Wednesday (Sep 9). Prevailing winds blow smoke into Malaysia and Singapore, shrouding these countries in haze.
Haze levels rose to unhealthy levels in Singapore on Thursday, with the 3-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hitting a high of 248 at 3am on Friday.
- CNA/wl
Indonesia has accepted Singapore's offer to help fight forest fires in Sumatra
Straits Times AsiaOne 11 Sep 15;
SINGAPORE - Indonesia has accepted Singapore's offer of help to combat the ongoing forest fires causing the haze, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Friday.
Speaking at a Toa Payoh polling station, Dr Ng said that on Cooling-off Day on Thursday, he had called his counterpart in Indonesia, who accepted the offer.
The Singapore government has offered haze assistance packages to Indonesia since 2005 during the traditional dry season from June to October. These include a C-130 aircraft for cloud seeding, up to two C-130s to ferry a fire-fighting assistance team from Singapore there and a Chinook helicopter with a water bucket for aerial fire-fighting.
Dr Ng said: "Thankfully the winds shifted this morning and the haze has come down. But we have to find some way of bringing down the problem, and I'm glad the Indonesian authorities are looking at it."
At 5am on Friday, the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI), an air quality measure, hit between 158 and 182 - its highest level since the new PSI was launched in April last year, and the closest it has been to reaching the very unhealthy range (201-300).
Air quality has improved throughout the day. At 9pm, the 24-hour PSI was between 120 and 137.
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