Singapore reiterates offer of assistance to Indonesia to fight forest fires

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan on Monday (Sep 14) called his Indonesian counterpart and reiterated Singapore's offer to help Indonesia battle forest fires.
Channel NewsAsia 14 Sep 15;

SINGAPORE: Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan on Monday (Sep 14) spoke with Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar and reiterated Singapore's offer of help to combat forest fires, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a statement. The offer came as the number of hotspots in Indonesia's Sumatra island soared to a two-month high of 982 on Monday, and a state of emergency has been declared in Riau province.

Indonesia had earlier accepted the Singapore Armed Forces' offer to send C-130s for cloud seeding and Chinooks for large water buckets to douse fires, only to decline it later. "While the Indonesian authorities accepted our offer of assistance initially, they have since expressed appreciation for the offer, and said they have sufficient resources of their own for now," Singapore's Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

"WE HAVE DONE EVERYTHING": INDONESIAN MINISTER

Dr Siti Nurbaya told Dr Balakrishnan that Indonesia has already deployed a host of resources to tackle the fires but said she would consult Indonesian President Joko Widodo who is personally overseeing the effort again on Singapore’s offer.

"We have deployed soldiers. We have conducted water bombing in Riau with 18 million litres of water, in South Sumatra and Jambi with 12 million liters of water. Cloud-seeding in Riau with 120 tonnes of salt and 56 tonnes of salt in South Sumatra," Dr Siti Nurbaya said.

"We have done everything. I was trying to convince the minister that we are serious in putting out the fire."
NEA said Minister Siti Nurbaya agreed to Dr Balakrishnan’s request for Indonesia to share the names of companies which are suspected to be causing the forest fires once they are able to verify this with checks on the ground. She also said she would inform him if there are links for these firms to Singapore.

As of 9pm, the 3-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) is 249 and the 24-hour PSI is 133 - 166. This is the highest 3-hour PSI reading this year.

NEA noted that there was a brief respite in hazy conditions on Monday morning, but haze from Sumatra was again blown in by the prevailing winds in the afternoon.

Thundery showers are expected in the pre-dawn and early morning hours of Tuesday, but NEA said the 24-hour PSI in the next 24 hours is still expected to be the mid to high sections of the Unhealthy range, and may enter the Very Unhealthy range.

WILL A "TOUGH COP" APPROACH PAY OFF?

Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Associate Professor Simon Tay said being a "tough cop" may not be the best approach for Singapore when tackling the transboundary haze issue. NEA on Sunday said it would conduct investigations into the situation.

"I think in any investigation of this nature, the temptation is to say you have to play a really tough cop," said Mr Tay. "But while the Singapore Government could do that, it probably isn't the best approach.

"In the end, many of the companies now - the bigger ones in Singapore - have actually put their maps online. They've taken steps, they have firefighting equipment that even the provisional officers don't have. So I would hope, in a sense, that the first response must be cooperation.

"In many of these cases, the companies may claim whether it's true or not, they didn't start the fires, the fires came on their land. So I think the first step we can agree on is that, for whoever started these fires, are the companies able and willing to try and put these fires out? Then, and again we have to give them some room because the scale of these fires and the scale of the land won't make it easy, even if they're trying their best."

Under Singapore's Transboundary Haze Pollution Act which came into effect in 2014, fines of up to S$2 million can be imposed on companies which cause or contribute to haze pollution in Singapore.

Haze pollution is said to have occurred if the 24-hour PSI remains at 101 or higher for 24 hours or longer. NEA said this had taken place from 10am on Sep 10 to 2am on Sep 12 - a full 41 hours.

NEA said it is closely monitoring the hotspots in the region. It is also drawing on information from maps, meteorological data, and satellite imagery in its investigations.

- CNA/dl/ek


S’pore renews offers to help Indonesia fight fires
VALERIE KOH Today Online 15 Sep 15;

SINGAPORE — With the haze situation worsening — and culprits potentially in breach of the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act — Singapore has renewed offers to help in firefighting operations, while pressing their Indonesian counterparts for more information on the cause of the fires.

Cautioning that air quality could creep into “very unhealthy” territory tomorrow (Sept 15), the National Environment Agency said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Dr Vivian Balakrishnan spoke with his Indonesian counterpart Dr Siti Nurbaya Bakar this afternoon, expressing his concern over the serious haze situation and reiterating Singapore’s offer of help to Indonesia.

In its advisory today, the NEA forecasted that the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) to be in the mid to high end of the unhealthy territory (101 to 200), and could edge into the low end of the very unhealthy range (201 to 300).

As at 11pm, the 24-hour PSI reading ranged from 128 to 160. The three-hour PSI reading was even higher — at 181. The one-hour PM2.5 reading — tiny particles in the air that are two-and-one-half microns — was 142 to 238 mcg/m3.

The NEA said Dr Siti Nurbaya, who is Indonesia’s Minister of Environment and Forestry, has agreed to provide Singapore a list of companies suspected to be behind the land and forest fires once the information has been confirmed.

On Singapore’s offer of help, the NEA said Dr Siti Nurbaya explained that the Indonesian authorities had already deployed a host of resources, but will consult Indonesian President Joko Widodo — who is personally overseeing Indonesia’s effort —again on Singapore’s offer.

Last year, Singapore passed the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, which states that haze pollution has occurred if the 24-hour PSI — for the same or any part of Singapore — remains above 100 for at least 24 hours. It further stipulates that it is an offence for any entity to cause or contribute to haze pollution here.

Over the past week, this has occurred at least twice. The 24-hour PSI lingered in the unhealthy range for 41 hours from 10am last Thursday till early Saturday morning. It re-entered unhealthy territory at 8pm on Saturday, and has remained in or above it since.

The NEA said it has been monitoring the situation closely and is investigating. More information will be shared when it is in a position to do so.

Under the Act, local or foreign firms can be fined up to S$100,000 a day for causing or contributing to haze, capped at S$2 million.

Experts felt that the reach of the legislation and the authorities’ investigative powers were hampered by the lack of maps showing plantation concessions — which could help identify culprits.

National University of Singapore (NUS) law professor Alan Tan said identifying the culprits to enforce the Act will not be easy, as the Indonesian government has not shared the plantation concession maps. Even if these are shared, they are likely to be unreliable. “The problem on the ground is that boundaries are uncertain and there are often local communities who encroach into the plantations’ lands to start fires there … In such situations, it is difficult to tell who is responsible,” he said.

Due to the presence of cloud cover and nearby fires, satellite images could be inaccurate. Identifying culprits would require ground evidence and time is needed to compile this, he added. Suggesting any investigation would likely begin with a Singapore-linked company, he said: “Whether this will deter other perpetrators is hard to say … It is the enforcement of domestic laws by the Indonesia authorities that will make a real difference,” he said.

Dr Santos Salinas, a senior research scientist at the NUS Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, felt that the maximum fine of S$2 million was “small change” to larger firms. “A better deterrent would be the withdrawal of their concession rights for a number of years,” he said.

Dr Erik Velasco, a research scientist at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology’s Centre for Environmental Sensing and Modelling, felt the recent haze episode proves that a unilateral law enacted by the Government “has not worked”. Instead, tabling a law among Association of South-east Asian Nations member countries to hold firms accountable would “get some success”, he added.

However, Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay pointed out that certain clauses in the Act were “quite powerful”, granting the authorities the rights to request firms to deploy fire-fighting personnel, and to obtain relevant information from firms.

Haze: Singapore Reiterates Assistance To Indonesia, Seeks Names Of Suspected Firms Causing Fires
Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah Bernama 14 Sep 15;

SINGAPORE, Sept 14 (Bernama) -- Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan spoke with Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry Dr Siti Nurbaya Bakar this afternoon as a follow-up to his letter last week.

In a statement, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said Balakrishnan expressed concern over the serious haze situation and reiterated Singapore's offer of help to Indonesia.

Siti Nurbaya explained that the Indonesian authorities had already deployed a host of resources, including aircraft and helicopters as well as military and police forces, to control the fires and conduct law enforcement.

However, she would consult Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who is personally overseeing the efforts again, on Singapore's offer.

Siti Nurbaya also agreed to Balakrishnan's request for Indonesia to share the names of companies suspected to be causing the fires, once they were able to confirm the information with checks and ground truthing.

Singapore and several parts of Malaysia are currently hit by haze due to forest fires from Sumatra, Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the NEA said as of 7pm today, the 24-hour pollutant standard index PSI was 121-152, in the low to mid sections of the unhealthy range, and the one-hour PM (particulate matter) 2.5 was 97-195 g/m3.

For the rest of today and tomorrow, the prevailing winds are forecast to blow from the southwest, and the current hazy conditions are expected to persist.

-- BERNAMA

Singapore says Indonesia to share names of companies causing forest fires
Reuters 15 Sep 15;

Indonesia has agreed to share with Singapore the names of companies suspected of causing forest fires that have led to a deterioration of air quality in the city state.

Indonesia's Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, told Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Vivian Balakrishnan, that the names would be shared once the information had been verified, Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a statement.

Haze has engulfed Singapore and Malaysia for several days, pushing the PSI air quality index to unhealthy levels of over 100 in the city state on a 24-hour basis. The three-hour gauge of PSI hit a high of 249 late on Monday night, the NEA said.

Singapore passed a cross-border air pollution law last year that makes those who cause haze both criminally and civilly liable. The law also provides law enforcers with a relatively low threshold to prove that a company outside Singapore has polluted the air.

The haze this week is also clouding the build-up to the city-state's glamour sporting spectacle -- the Formula One night motor race that will be held next weekend.

($1 = 1.4073 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Mark Potter)