Measures in place to clear fallen trees: NParks

Straits Times Forum 4 Jul 13;

WE THANK Mr Ravi Govindan for his feedback ("Set up response team to deal with fallen trees"; June 20).

We have rapid response teams on motorcycles to deal with fallen trees or branches resulting from stormy weather. They are on standby with chainsaws to clear such obstructions on public roads quickly.

In the interest of public safety, we also respond to calls on our 24-hour helpline 1800-471-7300 even if the affected trees are managed by other agencies.

In instances where there are traffic accidents or injured people, other agencies such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force will be roped in to conduct rescue operations and provide medical aid.

During the intense storm on June 1, when a tree fell in the Sembawang Park area, our response team was dispatched immediately and arrived within half an hour of notification.

Fortunately, no one was trapped or injured.

Heavy load-bearing vehicles had to be deployed because of the unusually huge tree.

The road was completely cleared for traffic four hours later.

Within the park, our priority was to clear fallen trees and branches from public footpaths to ensure park users' safety.

As for the damaged park bench, we have since replaced it.

Oh Cheow Sheng
Director, Streetscape
National Parks Board

Set up response team to deal with fallen trees
Straits Times Forum 20 Jun 13;

ABOUT 20 trees in Sembawang Park were damaged and uprooted after a storm earlier this month. One tree fell on a cab, trapping the occupants and blocking the main access road to my estate.

No one was hurt, and the police and Singapore Civil Defence Force arrived fairly quickly but were both not equipped to solve the problem swiftly and efficiently.

It took half an hour to extricate the trapped people, some eight hours to remove the tree from the road and over a week to clear the damaged trees.

Now, almost three weeks on, damage to facilities such as park benches has still not been fixed.

It should not take this long to restore the park to its normal condition.

Police and SCDF resources should not be used to solve the problem because that is not their job but the National Parks Board's (NParks).

While NParks has done well in crafting a neat and beautiful Garden City, it has left untended the establishment of a quick and efficient process to reduce public inconvenience when trees cause damage and disrupt traffic and park life. This ranges from the actual work of making roads passable once more to proactively informing the public, who may be caught unawares.

For example, commuters did not know that the fallen tree had disrupted the bus service and were waiting at a bus stop down the road. I had to stop my car to inform them of the disruption.

According to NParks, more than one million trees have been planted in the 50 years since the national exercise began, that is, one tree to four residents. Each year, some 50,000 to 60,000 trees are planted.

Given the figures, NParks should establish its own emergency response team and set up a hotline that the public can call. This would ensure that the public does not have to rely on arbitrary help when problems arise.

Ravi Govindan

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Malaysia: Johor records highest dengue fatalities

Chuah Bee Kim New Straits Times 2 Jul 13;

WORRYING: Seven cases were reported over the past six months compared to only one case throughout last year

JOHOR recorded the highest number of deaths from dengue, with seven cases over the past six months, compared with only one reported throughout last year.

Based on statistics released by the National Dengue Operations Room, there were six deaths in Selangor and Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya in the same period.

Compared with the same period last year, however, the number of cases reported in Selangor showed a decrease as there were only 11 cases.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said that the number of dengue cases, compiled on a weekly basis, showed that it has reached a critical level, with 658 cases reported nationwide.

Dr Subramaniam said that the number this year has increased by 14 per cent compared to 575 cases last year.

"Since the beginning of the year until June 22, a total of 12,143 cases nationwide have been reported compared to 11,430 cases in the same period last year, recording an increase of 713 cases or 6.2 per cent," he said.

"Eight states showed an increase of cases, with Johor recording the highest increase at 88 per cent. Sarawak has 58 per cent, Sabah (41 per cent), Negri Sembilan (33 per cent), Perak (15 per cent), Kelantan (seven per cent), Perlis (two per cent) and Selangor (one per cent)," Dr Subramaniam said.

He urged the public to make sure that their homes and surrounding neighbourhood do not provide breeding grounds for the Aedes mosquito to breed.

"Health enforcement officers will be carrying out checks on homes to ensure that the premises is free of Aedes mosquitoes," he said.

Under the Destruction of Disease Bearing Insects Act 1975, any residential home found with the Aedes larvae would be issued a fine of RM100 while shop premises will be slapped with a RM500 fine. For construction and industrial sites, they will be fined RM1,000 each.

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Google rolls out new map to track haze across Singapore, Malaysia

Today Online 3 Jul 13;

SINGAPORE — Google has unveiled a map showing air quality in Singapore and Malaysia in near real-time for the first time, as the region begins to breathe easier after weeks of haze from fires in Indonesia.

The map (http://google.org/crisismap/2013-se-asia-fires) which relies on air-quality data from government monitoring stations in Singapore and Malaysia, showed pollution levels in both countries within safe ranges today after hitting record hazardous levels last month. Information on air quality in Indonesia was not included because it was not readily available, Google said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the map also makes use of data from a fire-tracking satellite of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States to map out hotspots as well as a NASA imaging satellite to show an overlay of the haze that still hangs over the region.

The map is Google’s first foray into the annual fires emanating from agricultural lands in Indonesia, although its crisis division has worked on similar ad-hoc projects in the past, including during the Japan tsunami and for wildfires in Australia.

Other organizations, such as the Washington-based World Resources Institute and Indonesian environmental groups, have released online maps showing hotspots data overlaid with partial maps of concession boundaries in Riau province on Sumatra island, where the majority of the fires are occurring this year. Fires in Riau are often started to cheaply clear land for use in the multibillion-dollar palm oil and pulpwood industries.

Riau experienced around 8,000 fires last month, about four times the usual amount, amid drier skies and indications of increasing land conversion on peatlands, where fires are more difficult to extinguish. Rain in the past week has subdued many of the blazes across the province, but experts warn that more are likely as the region enters the heart of the dry season in the coming weeks.

Google says it plans to keep its map up for the duration of the fires and haze. AGENCIES

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Aceh quake kills at least 22 people, injures hundreds - report

Thin Lei Win Reuters 3 Jul 13;

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - An earthquake that struck the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island has killed at least 22 people, injured 210 and damaged thousands of buildings, the Jakarta Globe reported.

The injured are being cared for in regional hospitals and community health centres, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of data at the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, told the Globe. Damaged buildings include houses, mosques and government offices, he said.

The shallow quake, which was only 10 kms deep, struck 188 km southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Aid agencies are scrambling to reach the affected area but “blocked roads and landslides have hampered relief efforts to reach the worst hit children and their families”, Save the Children said in a statement.

The children’s charity placed the death toll higher, at 25 deaths including seven children.

“The earthquake happened just a couple of hours before sunset, making it hard for rescue workers to find many still stuck under the rubble,” Ricardo Caivano, director for Save the Children in Indonesia, said in the statement.

“We are especially concerned about children in remote villages that have not been reached by rescue workers, as reports indicate that hundreds of homes have collapsed with entire villages flattened.”

The sprawling Indonesian archipelago is on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire" and is regularly affected by earthquakes.

In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake struck Aceh, triggering huge tsunami waves which killed more than 230,000 people in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean.

42 Reported Dead in Aceh as Rescue Crews Search Earthquake Wreckage
JG/Nurdin Hasan, AFP/Fikri Ramadhavi & SP/Muhammad Hamzah Jakarta Globe 3 Jul 13;

The death toll in Indonesia’s Aceh province climbed to 42 on Wednesday after yesterday’s 6.2-magnitude earthquake triggered landslides and collapsed homes in this disaster-prone region, a local hospital head said.

Rescue crews rushed on Wednesday to pull victims from landslides in Bener Mariah district where at least 14 died and hundreds were injured in Tuesday’s quake. Local hospitals were flooded with 43 patients on Wednesday, while an additional 61 sought treatment at community health centers, Rusli M. Saleh, deputy regent of Bener Meriah regent, said.

“Officials along with local people and volunteers keep searching for victims in the ruins and landslides,” Rusli said.

Province-wide, the death toll from the earthquake reached 42 by Wednesday night, Syahrul, head of Zainoel Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh, said.

Some 300 people camped out overnight in open spaces, such as football fields, as the area was hit by strong aftershocks, Fauzi, an official from the local disaster agency, told AFP.

He said many were in desperate need of food.

“There were strong aftershocks last night and people didn’t want to go back home, so they stayed in the open overnight, but we don’t have enough tents,” said the official. “We have a power outage now and communications are unreliable.”

In nearby Central Aceh, some 17 people were reported dead, including at least six children killed when a mosque collapsed during a Koran reading session, district disaster agency head Subhan Sahara said.

Rescuers dug all night with an excavator through the rubble of the mosque looking for more children believed to be trapped but no more bodies had as yet been found, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Most houses in the village had collapsed and residents were digging through the remains of the buildings with their bare hands to search for their belongings, the reporter said.

Bodies of the dead were laid out and covered in blankets at a makeshift emergency health post in the village.

“This is the biggest earthquake we’ve ever had here,” Subhan told AFP. “People are still frightened, especially after the aftershocks last night. Nobody dared to stay at home. Everyone slept on the roads or in car parks.

“The earthquake triggered many landslides. People could not get out of the area because of fallen trees and mounds of earth blocking roads.”

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue crews continue to comb the region for missing people, Subhan said. More than 1,600 homes were reportedly flattened in the quake.

The main hospital in the district was overwhelmed and tents had been set up outside to treat the flood of patients, he said, adding that food and water were in short supply.

Military, police and local government officials were trying to head to affected areas by ground and in aircraft but some roads were blocked by landslips, the national disaster agency said.

The agency dispatched a helicopter from neighboring Riau province to assist in rescue efforts, while an air force plane was also deployed to assess the damage.

Rescue workers stand outside a partially collapsed building in Blang Pancung Village, Central Aceh district, Indonesia, on July 3, 2013. (EPA Photo/Hotli Simanjuntak)

Rescue workers stand outside a partially collapsed building in Blang Pancung Village, Central Aceh district, Indonesia, on July 3, 2013. (EPA Photo/Hotli Simanjuntak)

The earthquake knocked out power and cell phone service in much of the two disaster zones leaving residents, many with missing relatives, unable to reach loved ones.

“My cell phone battery is almost out,” said Bakhtiar Gayo, of Takengon, Aceh Tengah district. “We can’t charge our cell phone.”

Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah visited the affected areas with Aceh Police chief Insp. Gen. Herman Effendi and several other officials. The governor helped coordinate disaster relief and met with the earthquake’s victims.

The Aceh Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBA) sent two trucks of instant noodles, bottled water and rice to the region, handing out the supplies at various aid points scattered throughout the districts.

“This is only temporary aid,” said Miftah, a logistics officers with the BPBA. “If there is more accurate data on the aid needed, we will deliver it again.”

The 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck 35 kilometers southwest of Redolong, Bener Meriah, on Tuesday. The quake occurred at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers, shaking homes as far away as Malaysia.People ran outside in the provincial capital Banda Aceh as the quake — some 320 kilometers away — shook houses, and in Medan city to the south of the province.

Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, is regularly hit by quakes. The huge quake-triggered tsunami of 2004 not only killed tens of thousands in the province, but also many in countries around the Indian Ocean.

In April last year an 8.6-magnitude quake struck 431 kilometres off Banda Aceh, prompting an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert.

Five people died and seven were injured in Aceh in the quake and following aftershocks.

In September 2009 a major earthquake near Padang city on Sumatra killed more than 1,000 people.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

JG/AFP/SP

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Biofuel crop mix 'not favourable for environment'

A report by the European Environment Agency found benefits vary significantly depending on the source of crops
Rayhan Uddin guardian.co.uk 3 Jul 13;

When sourced from agricultural residues or waste, bioenergy is more efficient than fossil fuels both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on ecosystems. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The current mix of crops used for energy are "not favourable to the environment", according to a report published on Wednesday by the European Environment Agency. It said that the environmental benefits of such bioenergy vary significantly depending on the source of crops.

When sourced from agricultural residues or waste, bioenergy is more efficient than fossil fuels both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on ecosystems. But growing crops for energy has knock-on environmental impacts such as deforestation, the EEA warned.

The report comes as the EU continues to debate a plan cap the percentage of biofuels made from food crops, with a final vote due to occur on 10 July.

Proponents say the cap is needed because of environment concerns over the EU's biofuel policy – which sets a target of 10% of transport fuels coming from biofuel by 2020, but the proposed cap has come under fierce criticism from biodiesel companies and farmers. The industry says the EU is destroying a booming £14bn sector while farmers feel demand is being taken away from them at a time of increasing volatility in global food prices.

Hans Bruyninckx, director of the European Environment Agency, said "We see huge potential for bioenergy in the transition of the energy system that will occur over the coming years, but our research shows that this potential must take into consideration resource and climate efficiency. For example, food crops and other first generation pathways are a particularly inefficient use of biomass."

Most of the environmental impacts cited in the EEA report are a result of deforestation, draining of peatlands and other land clearance for biofuels, together known as indirect land use change (ILUC).

The report notes that adverse environmental effects associated with ILUC, such as an increase in carbon emissions or reduction in biodiversity, currently fall outside of the EU bioenergy policy framework, and believes that this needs to be addressed.

Friends of the Earth Biofuels campaigner Kenneth Ritcher said: "This report is a stark warning to lawmakers about the urgent need to differentiate between the types of bioenergy, based on their real impact on climate change. If the European parliament is serious about cutting emissions it must support proposals next week to penalise biofuels that increase emissions through deforestation."

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UN: 2001-2010 decade shows faster warming trend

John Heilprin Associated Press Yahoo News 3 Jul 13;

GENEVA (AP) — Global warming accelerated since the 1970s and broke more countries' temperature records than ever before in the first decade of the new millennium, U.N. climate experts said Wednesday.

A new analysis from the World Meteorological Organization says average land and ocean surface temperatures from 2001 to 2010 rose above the previous decade, and were almost a half-degree Celsius above the 1961-1990 global average.

The decade ending in 2010 was an unprecedented era of climate extremes, the agency said, evidenced by heat waves in Europe and Russia, droughts in the Amazon Basin, Australia and East Africa, and huge storms like Tropical Cyclone Nargis and Hurricane Katrina.

Data from 139 nations show that droughts like those in Australia, East Africa and the Amazon Basin affected the most people worldwide. But it was the hugely destructive and deadly floods such as those in Pakistan, Australia, Africa, India and Eastern Europe that were the most frequent extreme weather events.

Experts say a decade is about the minimum length of time to study when it comes to spotting climate change.

From 1971 to 2010, global temperatures rose by an average rate of 0.17 degrees Celsius per decade. But going back to 1880, the average increase was .062 percent degrees Celsius per decade.

The pace also picked up in recent decades. Average temperatures were 0.21 degrees Celsius warmer this past decade than from 1991 to 2000, which were in turn 0.14 degrees Celsius warmer than from 1981 to 1990.

Natural cycles between atmosphere and oceans make some years cooler than others, but during the past decade there was no major event associated with El Nino, the phenomenon characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Much of the decade was affected by the cooling La Nina, which comes from unusually cool temperatures there, or neutral conditions.

Given those circumstances, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud says the data doesn't support the notion among some in the scientific community of a slowdown, or lull, in the pace of planetary warming in recent years.

"The last decade was the warmest, by a significant margin," he said. "If anything we should not talk about the plateau, we should talk about the acceleration."

Jarraud says the data show warming accelerated between 1971 and 2010, with the past two decades increasing at rates never seen before amid rising concentrations of industrial gases that trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.

By the end of 2010, the report shows, atmospheric concentrations of some of the chief warming gases from fossil fuel burning and other human actions were far higher than at the start of the industrial era in 1750. Carbon dioxide concentrations measured in the air around the world rose 39 percent since then; methane rose 158 percent; and nitrous oxide was up 20 percent.

World suffered unprecedented climate extremes in past decade: WMO
Alister Doyle PlanetArk 4 Jul 13;

World suffered unprecedented climate extremes in past decade: WMO Photo: NASA
Earth's airglow is seen with an oblique view of the Mediterranean Sea area, including the Nile River with its delta and the Sinai Peninsula, in this October 15, 2011 NASA handout photograph taken by a crew member of Expedition 29 aboard the International
Photo: NASA

The world suffered unprecedented climate extremes in the decade to 2010, from heatwaves in Europe and droughts in Australia to floods in Pakistan, against a backdrop of global warming, a United Nations report said on Wednesday.

Every year of the decade except 2008 was among the 10 warmest since records began in the 1850s, with 2010 the hottest, according to the study by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The number of daily heat records far outstripped lows.

It said many extremes could be explained by natural variations - freak storms and droughts have happened throughout history - but that rising emissions of man-made greenhouse gases also played a role.

"Rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are changing our climate, with far-reaching implications for our environment and our oceans, which are absorbing both carbon dioxide and heat," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

The study said damaging extremes included Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, floods in Pakistan in 2010, droughts in the Amazon basin, Australia and East Africa and a retreat of Arctic sea ice.

Deaths from extreme events totaled 370,000 people, up 20 percent from the 1990s, the Geneva-based WMO said, though the world population also rose sharply over the period, from 5.3 billion in 1990 to 6.9 billion in 2010.

The jump in the death toll was caused mainly by a heatwave in Europe in 2003 which killed 66,000 and a heatwave in Russia in 2010 in which 55,000 people died.

However, casualties from storms and droughts fell, partly because of better preparedness for disasters.

The study said that 44 percent of nations recorded the highest daily maximum temperature of the past half-century in the decade 2001-10 but only 11 percent reported a new low.

It also said that the decade "continued an extended period of accelerating global warming" with average decadal temperatures 0.21 degree Celsius (0.4 F) warmer than 1991-2000, which was in turn 0.14 C warmer than 1981-1990.

SLOWING RATE OF INCREASE?

Other reports have found that the rate of temperature rises has slowed this century.

"Global mean surface temperatures have not increased strongly since 1998" despite rising greenhouse gas emissions, according to a draft report by the U.N.'s panel of climate scientists due for release in September.

Some experts say the apparent rise from the 1990s is magnified because a volcanic eruption in the Philippines in 1991 dimmed sunlight and cut temperatures.

The WMO also said it was hard to link any individual extreme events to climate change rather than to natural variability.

However, warmer air can hold more moisture, raising risks of downpours - the study said that 2010 was the wettest year since records began. And sea levels have risen about 20 centimeters in the past century, increasing risks of storm surges.

One 2004 study, for instance, said that climate change had at least doubled the risks of the European heatwave in 2003.

Peter Stott of the UK Met Office who led that study said scientists were now trying to see if there was a human fingerprint behind other extremes in 2012, such as Superstorm Sandy or drought in Australia.

"You can't just take a record-breaking event and say 'that's climate change'," he said.

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

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Best of our wild blogs: 3 Jul 13

Macro Photography Workshop Session 1
from Macro Photography in Singapore

Three days of small group training at the 2013 ICCS Workshop Series for Organisers! from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Butterflies Galore! : Malayan Sunbeam
from Butterflies of Singapore

Saving Singapore's Giant clams
from wild shores of singapore

Yes, dead fishes are from fish farms
from wild shores of singapore

IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group Conference
from sundapangolin

Can palm oil be part of green growth in Indonesia?
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler

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Thousands of fish dead as dry spell hits farms

Feng Zengkun Straits Times 3 Jul 13;

THOUSANDS of dead fish from coastal fish farms were found in Lim Chu Kang in the past few days, some in the sea and on the shore.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said yesterday that about 90,000kg of fish from farms in the area had died due to the recent hot and dry weather spell.

It said the weather, combined with a lack of rainfall, resulted in low levels of dissolved oxygen in the waters near the farms. Rainfall churns the water, which helps to dissolve atmospheric oxygen in it.

The AVA added that other factors, such as a slight rise in the water's temperature, had also contributed. It has been monitoring the water's condition and had alerted the farms to take precautions such as installing standby aeration systems to add oxygen to the water, said a spokesman.

"As a result, most farms were not affected. The situation has since stabilised and returned to normal. We will continue to work closely with the farms to address any issues they may face," she said, adding that the dead fish came from four farms and included species such as milkfish and mullet.

Singapore has had other instances of mass fish deaths. In December 2009, for example, a plankton bloom killed 400,000 fish in farms off Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin.

Fish farmers in Lim Chu Kang told The Straits Times that they use water pumps and other machinery to artificially churn the water when there are prolonged periods without rain.

However, this may not help if the natural oxygen levels are too low, said Mr Ong Kim Pit, who has run a fish farm in Lim Chu Kang for 20 years.

Some of the fish can still be sold, but fish farmers are supposed to hire private contractors to dispose of the remainder responsibly, added Mr Ong, who is in his 60s.

Nature enthusiast Ria Tan, who runs the WildSingapore website, told The Straits Times she saw dead fish strewn over the Lim Chu Kang mangroves yesterday morning.

"It looks like some of the fish farmers just dumped the dead fish into the sea and they washed up here," she said.

"It's disgusting. If you had a chicken farm and your chickens died, you wouldn't dump them all over the road."

Dead fish everywhere
Hundreds of dead fish seen floating at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
Jose Hong The New Paper 3 Jul 13;

On Satuday, a 43-year old man who gave his name only as Andy took his Danish friend to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve to show him Singapore's more rustic side.

But instead of mudskippers, monitors and otters, they were faced with the sight and smell of dead fish everywhere.

Andy, a volunteer at the park, said he counted around 150 dead fish that day along the shore of the Sungei Buloh Besar river or stuck in the mangroves.

He said: "The whole area smelled of decomposing matter."

At first he wondered if pollution was affecting the fish in the reserve, but he soon realised that the dead fish were all from two speices: mullet and milkfish, which probably came from the fish farms off Lim Chu Kang.

This was confirmed by a spokesman for the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) who said the recent "hot and dry weather with little or no rainfall" had resulted in "low levels of dissolved oxygen in the waters near the coastal fish farms at Lim Chu Kang."

The spokesman said 80 to 90 tonnes of fish, such as milkfish and mullet, from four farms in the area had died, and were in places such as Sungei Buloh.

Mr Malcom Ong, the chief executive officer of Metropolitan Fishery Group, Singapore's largest marine farm which is in the Straits of Johor near Lim Chu Kang, said the oxygen levels had dropped from the early hours of last Thursday to Friday night.

He said that while low oxygen level usually affected only small parts of his farm at a time, allowing this staff to deal with the problem, the low levels of those days were so severe and widespread that he had to prioritise which fish to save.

In the end, his farm lost approximately 40 tonnes (12%) of its milkfish stock, a six-figure loss.

AVA said the farmers affected were advised to dispose of the dead fish by bagging them and placing them in the waste disposal bins.

Additionally, AVA activated a waste disposal company to increase its waste disposal frequencies because of the expected higher amount of waste, the spokesman said.

While Mr Ong said his farm disposed of the dead fish in the bins on mainland Singapore, while trying to rescue its stock, the farm released some dying fish to "at least give them a chance to swim away."

The New Paper understands that the dead fish which had drifted into Sungei Buloh were disposed of by the National Parks staff daily.

Would the dead fish have impacted Sungei Buloh negatively?

Marine ecosystems

Professor Chou Loke Ming from the Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, said marine ecosystems like mangroves would be able to overcome an overload of dead fish over time.

He added: "Normal ecological processes will break down the carcasses" and return the remains back to the food chain, noting that the only significant impact of around 100 tonnes of dead fish spread over a large area would be the stench.

Ms Ria Tan, a nature blogger and environmentalist, can attest to this fact. Yesterday, she went to survey the mangroves at the end of Lim Chu Kang Road to see the situation for herself.

Blogging about her experience, she said she could smell the fish long before she could see them.

AVA said the water conditions have stabilised and are now back to normal. It has conducted a workshop for farmers on possible measures to deal with such situations, and will continue working closely with the farms to take care of any future issues.

Mass fish death causes

Professor Chou Loke Ming from the Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, said fish deaths can also be caused by

1. Sudden and large discharges of toxic pollutants.

2. Overstacking fish in cages in sheltered waters with little water flow, leading to a lack of dissolved oxygen.

3. Algal blooms which also lower the dissolved oxygen in the water.

In the past few years, Singapore has been a few cases of mass fish deaths.

29 March 2012: More than 1,000 dead saltwater fish called baby tamban washed up along Sungei Tampines.

20 Mar 2012: Thousands of dead sardines washed up along Pasir Ris and Sungei Api Api.

Late December 2009: 400,000 fishes were killed in farms off Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin due to a plankton bloom.

Tonnes of dead fish spotted at Lim Chu Kang, Sungei Buloh, due to lack of oxygen in waters
Nurul Azliah Aripin Yahoo News 3 Jul 13;

Tonnes of fish from four farms at the Lim Chu Kang area have died due to the lack of oxygen in the water, said the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA).

Some of the close to 90,000kg of dead fish, mainly mullet and milkfish, have also been sighted at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR).

According to a statement by the AVA, the lack of oxygen is due to the recent hot and dry weather conditions with little rainfall.

Rainfall is important to produce a “churning effect”, which helps to dissolve “atmospheric oxygen” in the water, it said.

Other factors such as “slightly warmer temperatures” have also contributed to the mass death.

Spotted by bloggers

The mass death was initially brought to light on 29 June after a blogger posted photos of the dead fish found on Lim Chu Kang beach as well as at SWBR. The nature lover, who was on a walk with a friend, snapped photos of fish stuck on rocky bunds and trees at SBWR's mangrove boardwalk area.

According to his entry, some of the fish found at SBWR were already producing a “pungent smell of decomposing fish”. He added that he the “SWBR staff had cleared what they could reach but there were just too many”.

On Monday, Ria Tan from nature site “Wild Shores of Singapore” followed up with more photos of the dead fish at Lim Chu Kang.

“The dead fish looked like those raised by fish farms,” she wrote.

Proper disposal

The AVA has advised affected farmers to dispose the dead fish and has increased “the frequency of waste disposal” by activating waste disposal companies. It is also working closely with the farms to help with the situation and provide assistance.

One way for farmers to “mitigate” the low levels of oxygen in the water, is by setting up “standby aeration systems”, according to the AVA and it is rendering the necessary assistance.

Thousands of dead fish spotted at Lim Chu Kang
Channel NewsAsia 4 Jul 13;

SINGAPORE: Thousands of dead fish have been found floating at sea and on the shore at the Lim Chu Kang area as well as the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

The dead fish were among 90 tonnes of fish belonging to four farms in the Lim Chu Kang area.

AVA said the fish have died due to lack of oxygen in the water. This, it said, was caused by the hot and dry weather which lowered the level of dissolved oxygen in the water.

AVA has been working closely with local farmers to encourage good farm practices which include properly bagging dead fish and disposing of them in bins.

Fish farms in Singapore are licensed by AVA. Under the conditions of licensing, coastal fish farms have to ensure that waste generated from their operations are properly disposed of in approved waste containers on land.

However, AVA noted that during the farms' emergency operations to remove the dead fishes for disposal, some could have dropped into the sea and got washed ashore.

In anticipation of more waste, AVA said it had activated the waste disposal company to increase the frequency of disposal.

Three additional trips were made on top of the usual trip to clear waste last weekend.

AVA also conducts routine surveillance and monitors fish farms regularly for compliance to licensing conditions.

“We will take enforcement action if farms are found to be disposing their farm waste into the waters. In addition, we work with relevant agencies to detect illegal dumping of waste into the sea by fish farms," said a spokesman from AVA.

Under the Fisheries Act, any person who illegally disposes of dead fish into the waters can be jailed up to 12 months, and fined up to S$10,000.

- CNA/fa


Fish prices rise about 10%: Punggol Fish Merchants Association
Hu Jielan Channel NewsAsia 4 Jul 13;

SINGAPORE: The price of fish has risen by about 10 per cent, according to the Punggol Fish Merchants Association.

With the monsoon season and Ramadan fasting month coming up, the association said prices could continue to rise, especially for species like the white snapper and threadfin.

Some fishmongers and hawkers are feeling the pinch.

One of them told MediaCorp: "The fish used to cost S$8 to S$9 per kilogramme, but now it is S$12 to S$13."

The association said the recent death of fish in local farms should not have affected prices, as Singapore imports 95 per cent of its fish supply.

- CNA/ms


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New living ideas: Keep in mind ecological, psychological and emotional impact

Straits Times Forum 3 Jul 13;

LAST week's Urban Sustainability Research and Development Congress presented underground caverns and floating islands as two examples of new living spaces ("Future living ideas: Going underground"; last Friday).

Researchers studying these new frontiers promote their limitless potential.

However, questions pertaining to their ecological, psychological and emotional impact were superficially, if not dismissively, addressed.

The researchers did not see living and working underground as a problem as we are already commuting underground on the MRT and remain in our offices with the blinds drawn down for hours.

Similarly, the ecological impact of floating islands may be seen as a necessary trade-off that we can afford to make as Singapore urgently needs more space.

There is an absence of ecologists, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers and even religious scholars studying the impact of these living ideas at the same level and with the same amount of funding and prominence as technologists.

There is a need for greater inter-disciplinary scrutiny of novel concepts of human habitation. I cannot help sensing that behind the current research and development initiative, the intensification of our urban space is an unquestionable given. Hence, it is technologically biased towards minimising the impact of urban intensification.

No initiative has been mooted to study the necessity and the means of minimising the very need for urban intensification.

I suspect our hope for a sustainable future lies somewhere in between, but the current initiatives are geared towards one direction.

Osman Sidek

Human dimension considered in urban planning
Straits Times Forum 9 Jul 13;

WE APPRECIATE Mr Osman Sidek's views ("New living ideas: Keep in mind psychological impact"; Forum Online, last Wednesday).

Indeed, in exploring innovative urban solutions, we are mindful that considerations must go beyond technology and incorporate the human dimension - both at the individual and social level.

This point was also raised by speakers and participants during forum discussions at the Urban Sustainability R&D Congress, and the general consensus was that technical innovations must ultimately be for the good of the people and for our environment.

The congress was conceived as a multi-disciplinary forum and was first organised in 2011 to provide a national platform for stakeholders from the private and public sectors, as well as the research community, to discuss and co-create research and development (R&D) solutions to address Singapore's urban sustainability challenges.

Urban sustainability has multiple interconnected elements that go beyond just technology.

Hence, the congress was planned to ensure a good mix of topics and participants. For instance, there was a dedicated track to discuss social behavioural issues, which was also one of the best-attended sessions. And besides urban planners and technical experts, we also invited sociologists and ecologists, among others, to participate and share their views at the congress. More information can be found at www.urbansustainability.sg

The Land and Liveability National Innovation Challenge R&D initiative will also provide funding for relevant social and behavioural research studies.

Derek Tan

Chairman, Urban Sustainability R&D Congress Working Committee

Ministry of National Development

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Singapore’s increasing waste poses potential crisis

Usual disposal methods no longer sustainable and viable, says Balakrishnan
Kok Xing Hui Today Online 3 Jul 13;

SINGAPORE — The dense haze episode two weeks ago was a “special, extreme case of waste disposal gone wrong”, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan yesterday.

It was agricultural waste incinerated out in the open, leading to smog in the air that people were forced to breathe, said the minister, who cited the haze as an example of how the rising amount of waste generated posed a threat to the environment.

Speaking at the Waste Management Symposium and 3R Packaging Awards yesterday, he noted that the amount of waste generated per person per day currently has doubled from the World Bank estimate of 0.64kg a decade ago. The 0.64kg figure is expected to triple in the next 10 years.

This poses a potential environmental crisis, as air and environment quality is crucial in a world where half the people live in densely-populated cities. This compared to the past, when cities were less populated and “only a few are inconvenienced” if things went wrong.

Dr Balakrishnan cautioned that the usual ways of waste disposal are no longer sustainable and viable. “The day will come when we no longer have any more landfills,” he said. “And a day will come when we will have to recycle — not just because the raw materials are valuable but because you can’t afford to dump it anywhere else.”

He cited packaging waste as an example, saying that it makes up a third of what the public discards at home. “It is ethically wrong that more than 80 per cent of our waste consists of recyclable material … yet so little of that is recycled,” he added.

Sixteen companies were lauded yesterday for their efforts and achievements in reducing packaging waste. These companies were amongst 128 signatories to the second Singapore Packaging Agreement signed in 2012 .

Since the first agreement in 2007, 12,900 tonnes of packaging waste were cumulatively reduced, saving signatories about S$31 million in the material costs of locally consumed products. Firms who signed the second agreement will work towards a total annual reduction of 6,500 tonnes of packaging waste by 2015. As of last month, the total amount reduced was about 4,800 tonnes.

Dr Balakrishnan, however, felt that the productivity of Singapore’s waste disposal industry could improve. “Our labour productivity, our land productivity, our use of technology, and really, the value-add of a worker for this sector is far too low,” he said. “We should be able to do so much more with fewer workers, but to be able to pay them more as well.”

The Republic’s waste disposal industry employs 12,000 workers. Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS) chairman Jerome Baco said: “Adoption of new technologies might help increase the labour productivity to match the higher ratios that we can see in Taiwan or Japan.”

The minister added that Singapore has roughly 1,000 drivers and crew who have undergone Workforce Skills Qualifications training and the country needs to enable these workers to progress to a “higher occupational level”, such as supervisors and managers, and to pay them more.

Singapore 'behind others' in managing waste
Firms yet to adopt new technology that uses space and labour efficiently
Grace Chua Straits Times 3 Jul 13;

SINGAPORE lags behind other developed countries when it comes to waste management, a symposium on the subject was told yesterday.

Waste Management & Recycling Association of Singapore chairman Jerome Baco said the industry employs 12,000 staff and occupies 517ha but processes just 1.6 tonnes of waste per worker per day - half of Taiwan's productivity and a third of Japan's. Firms are not using new technologies, which are costly but space- and labour-efficient, he told the second Waste Management Symposium at Singapore Expo.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan also said the Republic can do "so much more" to improve its waste management record.

Speaking as guest of honour, he said the National Environment Agency and the association have been working since last November to develop new standards, training and technology for the sector.

If productivity can be lifted, then fewer workers will be needed and they can be paid more, Dr Balakrishnan said.

The lack of public participation in recycling is also a problem with household waste like plastic and food often being incinerated and going to landfill.

Each year, 803,400 tonnes of plastic waste is generated, making it fourth among the top five waste streams, after ferrous metals, construction debris and paper or cardboard, which all have higher recycling rates. Just 10 per cent of plastic is recycled, a rate that has stayed the same since 2001.

"One-third of the waste we discard at home is packaging waste," Dr Balakrishnan noted. However the 128 companies and groups that have signed the Singapore Packaging Agreement since 2007 have reduced their packaging waste by 14,900 tonnes.

The voluntary agreement aims to get producers to reduce the material used in product packaging and recycle packaging waste.

Dr Balakrishnan also presented the 3R Packaging Awards to 16 firms for outstanding efforts in doing this. Winners included Nestle Singapore, which cut packaging from its Yang Sheng Le herbal soups and Milo powdered drink mixes, and LHT Holdings, which makes pallets, packaging and doors from horticultural and industrial wood waste.

LHT began using recycled material in the late 1990s, after then Environment Minister Yeo Cheow Tong announced that fees for waste incineration would rise. Its managing director Neo Koon Boo said: "Our target is zero waste."

Productivity of Singapore's waste management industry 'abysmal': Vivian Balakrishnan
Channel NewsAsia 2 Jul 13;

SINGAPORE: Environment Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said there is a big gap in Singapore's current performance in waste management.

While the industry employs 12,000 workers, he said productivity figures are "abysmal".

Speaking at the Waste Management Symposium on Tuesday, Dr Balakrishnan said more could be done with fewer workers who should be paid more.

"Today, one-third of the waste we discard at home is estimated to be packaging waste and each person discards about 100 kilogrammes of packaging waste in a year. The packaging waste is almost entirely recyclable and yet most of that packing waste does not end up being recycled," he said.

Using the haze in Singapore as an example, Dr Balakrishnan also said air quality is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

"It was agricultural waste. It was incinerated not in an incinerator but out in the open and all that smog ended up in the air which we were all forced to breathe without any choice two weeks ago. What we experienced was a clear example of waste disposal gone wrong."

The Singapore Packaging Agreement may offer a solution to that.

Since 2007, companies have reduced a total of 14,900 tons of packaging waste.

Sixteen companies were also recognised for their efforts in reducing packaging waste at the 3R Packaging Awards.

A new Singapore Packaging Agreement (SPA) drawn up on Monday will see companies reduce packaging waste by another 6,500 tons by 2015.

Initiatives include reducing the size of product packaging and switching to reusable packaging.

- CNA/fa

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Lost in the Haze: The Story of a Couple’s Tragic Death in Riau’s Blaze

Jakarta Globe 2 Jul 13;

Lamiem Purba had already stopped breathing by the time the search party found her laying with her husband in a muddy irrigation canal near their Rokan Hilir plantation.

The couple was found holding each other in the canal as the fires burning through the Riau closed in, blanketing their Sumatran village in a thick layer of choking gray smoke that would remain for weeks. It was June 18, the early days of a blaze that would later grow to engulf more than 850 hectares of land in the worst forest fires to strike Indonesia in more than a decade.

They were found by their son, a man who, concerned by their absence and the spreading flames, organized a small search party to find his parents, according to reports in Indonesian media.

Johan Purba, 20, walked across the charred remains of his family’s plantation, stepping on embers and searching the dark smog for his parents. Tears, he said, glistened in his eyes as he scoured the grounds, looking for his family after they returned to the farm in a last-ditch effort to save some of the harvest from the flames.

Johan found his mother dead in a ditch, her arms wrapped around her husband Dulsani. The son leaned forward and whispered “Allah” in his mother’s ear, trying to rouse her stiff body. Johan used a wet rag to wipe the soot from his father’s face as the 49-year-old man mouthed “Astagfirullah” (“God forgive me”) in a breathless refrain, his voice small and hollow, according to local media.

Dulsani was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died eight days later of complications from smoke inhalation. It was June 25 and newspapers carried headlines of the death of an asthmatic woman in Malaysia. Indonesia was deeply involved in this year’s blame game with Singapore and Malaysia as the countries’ leaders traded diplomatic barbs while the smog obscured Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Petronas Twin Towers and left Singapore shrouded in a milky haze.

It was two weeks until the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) released a report mentioning their deaths. The story was lost amid the firestorm of news coverage, much of it focused on the ensuing political theater as neighbors with a long-standing history of rocky relations jumped at the chance to lob complaints across the border.

We read about the air quality in Malaysia. The impact of the haze on Singapore’s squeaky-clean image. The status of a long-stalled treaty on slash-and-burn land clearing.

Somewhere along the line we lost touch with Riau.

The deaths warranted a brief write-up by Malaysia’s state-run news agency Bernama after Dulsani died. Indonesia’s own state-run news wire, Antara News Agency, ran a similar report. The Jakarta Globe devoted 51 words to Lamiem’s death based on early information obtained over the phone from a public official, much of which proved to be wrong.

The local affiliate the Pekanbaru Tribun was seemingly one of the few media outlets to visit the hospital before Dulsani died. Much of this piece’s information has been gleaned from that first story.

This is the story for much of Riau, a region hit hardest by the fires but overshadowed by the haze. Here’s what we know: the blaze left two dead, 51 hospitalized and some 16,000 with respiratory and skin problems, according to a report released by the BNPB late last night. An additional 39,000 masks have been distributed to the residents of Riau, the agency reported.

Hundreds of hectares of land burned, leaving heavy-hit areas like Rokan Hilir and Bengkalis a scarred landscape of scorched twigs and smoking earth. There were only seven hotspots reported in Sumatra on Tuesday, down from the 264 recorded at the height of the blaze after thousands of fire fighters soaked the soil for weeks and heavy, artificially triggered rains fell across Riau.

The National Police announced additional arrests on Tuesday, upping the number to 25 as officers worked to round-up those allegedly responsible for sparking the initial fires under the gaze of international condemnation. Eight palm oil companies are also under investigation, but it remains to be seen whether any were actually involved in setting the fires.

“One suspect lives on [land owned by] a company, but whether or not the company was involved, we’re still investigating it,” National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Hilman Thayid said.

The haze has receded in Singapore. Twenty-four hour air quality measured 31-37 PSI on Tuesday, according to the National Environment Agency. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is pushing for Indonesia to ratify the neglected treaty at a regional meeting in Brunei while response teams in Riau prepared to move on to other affected areas in Sumatra, Jambi and Kalimantan on Tuesday. The story, it seems, is drawing to a close.

But for people like Johan or the thousands of others in Riau who lost their crops, their homes or their health, the impact of this year’s forest fires will likely be felt long after the ground cools.

Riau hit by haze-related infections
Straits Times 3 Jul 13;

PEKANBARU - The heavy haze that has engulfed Riau for weeks may have started to fade but the region's problems are far from over.

The disaster has left an estimated 10,400 residents suffering from acute respiratory infections.

About half the patients were reportedly children under five years old, the Riau Health Agency said.

Its disease control and environmental health head Tengku Zul Effendi said the number may rise as it covered only eight of the 12 regencies and cities across Riau.

The number of people suffering from the infections has risen steadily since June 18, 10 days after the haze started to blanket the province.

"This number really raises our concerns," said Mr Zul. "Parents need to keep their children indoors while the haze is still around."

The haze has also been blamed for asthma attacks in 699 people and for triggering pneumonia in 708 others. As many as 538 people suffered from skin irritations, while 622 had eye irritations.

"A mixture of haze and post- fire dust residue has contributed to skin and eye irritations," Mr Zul said, adding that the administration would pay for the treatment of haze-related illnesses.

"These are relatively minor diseases and are directly due to the haze. But they have to be treated immediately to prevent further infections."

The agency has distributed 120,000 masks across 12 regencies and cities since the haze hit the province, as well as providing an additional 170,000 masks.

Land and forest fires have for years been a major problem for Riau as smallholders and plantation firms allow slash-and-burn farming methods.

Mr Martinho Pinto, of the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry police in Riau, said it would take time to sort out responsibility in each district of the provinces for slash- and-burn clearing.

"We're still investigating, so give us time," he said shortly before his team located a burning hillside near Pontain Mekar village. "We're not sure if it's the companies or the communities."

"No one wants to take responsibility, or to tell who did it," said Mr Afdhal Mahyuddin, a researcher with Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of non-governmental organisations in Riau that focuses on environmental issues.

As the crisis begins to wind down, the Indonesian authorities are shifting their focus to assigning responsibility for the disaster. Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya said that the government had identified 14 companies believed to have started fires.

"There's a total lack of law enforcement in regard to the plantations and concessions," said Mr Afdhal. "The Ministry of Forestry has failed to stop it, so you have encroachment by illegal farmers, as well as companies setting fires to clear land."

THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, NEW YORK TIMES

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Asean 'back on track' to fight haze

All 10 members on board as part of solution: Jakarta
Leonard Lim In Bandar Seri Begawan Straits Times 3 Jul 13;

ASEAN is back on track to tackle the haze issue with all 10 members on board as part of the solution, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The Straits Times yesterday at the close of meetings with his counterparts.

He praised the Asean spirit and pointed to good "building blocks" that have been put in place to tackle the air pollution which plagues the region around this time each year. The source of the problem is the Indonesian farmers and plantation companies which resort to fire to clear their land.

In the past three weeks, the haze hit Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei, and the amount of pollutants in the air rose to dangerous levels in many of these countries. But air quality has since returned to the good-to-moderate range after sustained firefighting efforts by Indonesia in the past week.

Yesterday, Dr Marty said after four days of meetings: "We're back on track in terms of all presenting themselves as part of the solution.

"It's about partnership, it's about working closely together, communicating, understanding what the problems are."

On Sunday, Asean directed its senior officials to both consolidate current initiatives to combat the haze and recommend steps to prevent a recurrence.

A joint communique issued after the 10 foreign ministers met also stated that a progress report on anti-haze efforts would be sent to the top leaders at the next Asean summit in October.

The grouping also reaffirmed its commitment to establish effective monitoring, rapid response and firefighting systems. It called on countries which have not ratified a 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution - Indonesia is the only one - to do so "expeditiously".

The challenge now is in implementing what has been discussed, Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam has acknowledged. Asked when he expects to get clarity on whether Singapore-linked firms are involved in the burning - a diplomatic note was conveyed to Indonesia a week ago - he said he is still waiting for Indonesia to respond.

"The Indonesians have said that they are investigating, and they are not sure whether any Singapore companies are involved," he said yesterday.

Since the weekend, there has been a significant drop in the number of hot spots in Riau, from 262 a week ago to four on Sunday.

Disaster officials say they are shifting into preventive mode, to respond faster and put out the fires before they spread out of control.

Tackling transboundary issues such as the haze involved "a lot of painstaking and consistent effort", Dr Marty said, and required work at the national, regional and international level.

"Thankfully, after those efforts, we are beginning to see results on the ground," he added.

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