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Malaysia: Alarm over elephant inbreeding
MUGUNTAN VANAR The Star 25 Feb 16;
KOTA KINABALU: Poor connectivity between Sabah’s forests may put the future of its Bornean elephant population in jeopardy.
Experts believe that the state’s 2,500 Bornean elephants were at risk of inbreeding in fragmented areas of its jungles as they are unable to meet elephants from other parts to mate and strengthen their gene pool.
This was the main conclusion of a paper published online yesterday in the scientific journal Biological Conservation by a team of scientists from Danau Girang Field Centre in Sabah (DGFC), Cardiff University (UK), the NGO Hutan (Sabah), Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal), the Institute for Systems Genomics (USA), the CNRS (France), and Sabah Wildlife Department.
Over the years, the clearing of land for development and the opening up of plantations have left many forests fragmented, making it difficult for wildlife to roam without coming in conflict with humans.
The study said inbreeding could occur in the future among the elephants in forested areas of Lower Kinabatangan, Upper Kinabatangan and Central Sabah if these areas are not connected.
“The study basically tells us that there is a need for the elephants in the various areas to meet and mate to create a bigger gene pool for its very survival in Sabah,’’ DGFC director Dr Benoit Goosens said.
He said the study found that the Bornean elephants showed a low degree of genetic differentiation among its populations.
“It is now very important to secure forest connectivity between these distinct populations to avoid further fragmentation within the population if we want to conserve the species,” he said.
The study was funded by the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Elephant Family, Houston Zoo, Columbus Zoo and the Portuguese Science Foundation.
Dr Goosens, the lead author of the study said their teams spent several months collecting dung samples from all elephant ranges in Sabah and then analysing their DNA to provide an insight into their genetic diversity and determine the degree of population fragmentation and isolation of the existing herds.
“It was alarming to detect reduced gene flow levels among elephant populations in Sabah, especially between ranges such as the Kinabatangan, Tabin and Central Sabah (Malua, Ulu Segama, Kalabakan, Kuamut, Gunung Rara Forest Reserves).”
He said that the recent news of a potential bridge to be built over the Kinabatangan river in Sukau and further road development within the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, could jeopardise the long-term survival of the elephant population in the region and subsequently in the state.
Hutan’s scientific director Dr Marc Ancrenaz said there was a need for a long term solution by securing elephant “highways”, or forest corridors that the animals can use to move across forests as the current situation is seeing a lot of human-elephant conflict.
The paper can be found at the following link until April 13, 2016: http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1SbFB1R~e3C20
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Indonesia: Some 19 hotspots detected on Sumatra island
Antara 24 Feb 16;
Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - A total of 19 hotspots were detected in three provinces on Sumatra Island on Wednesday, according to data released by the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency (BMKG).
Of the 19 hotspots, 11 were found in Aceh Province, spokesman of the Pekanbaru BMKG Slamet Riyadi stated here on Wednesday.
North Sumatra has six hotspots and Riau has two, he revealed.
In Riau, the hotspots were detected in the districts of Bengkalis and Pelalawan.
Earlier, Riau also had two hotspots respectively in the districts of Siak and Indragiri.
He, however, noted that the hotspots did not always develop into forest fires in the current rainy season as the province had experienced low to moderate intensity rain.
The agency has forecast that the rainy season would peak in March and April.(*)
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Indonesia: Severe dengue spreads across regions, claims lives
Agus Maryono, Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, and Lita Aruperes, The Jakarta Post 25 Feb 16;
Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) continues to spread, claiming lives in a number of regions across the country.
In Banyumas regency, Central Java, the disease killed at least nine people during February and 72 others are reported to have received hospital treatment in the last week.
The latest victim was Faiz Fairus Aziz, 11, a fifth grade student at SDN 4 Rawalo in Rawalo district, who died on Monday.
Faiz’ mother Mainah, 32, said her son had presented with a fever four days prior to his death and was taken promptly to a clinic in her subdistrict, Rawalo.
“My son was treated by the doctor who owns the clinic. I didn’t know he had contracted the disease,” Mainah said.
The Banyumas regency administration recently declared an extraordinary occurrence status for the disease. Mosquito eradication efforts such as fogging have also been conducted in endemic areas and mass mosquito nest eradication measures have been carried out across 331 subdistricts in 27 districts.
In Klaten, Central Java, a 2-year-old toddler from Jogonalan died on Sunday due to the disease. He is the third victim recorded to have died from the disease in the area this year.
To date, the Klaten Health Agency has recorded 145 cases of dengue with two DHF fatalities.
“We have to remain cautious until April this year,” the agency’s disease prevention and control (P2P) division head Herry Martanta told The Jakarta Post, Wednesday, adding that dengue was endemic from the beginning of the rainy season until the beginning of the dry season.
While North Sulawesi have recorded two DHF deaths since January, according to Hendrik Tairas, an official from the North Sulawesi health agency, the number of dengue cases had decreased significantly in the region, with 122 cases throughout January and February compared to 418 cases reported during the same period last year.
“Declaring an extraordinary situation is not only based on the number of infections, we have to consider many aspects. We do not feel that current situation here requires an extraordinary status,” he said.
In Surakarta, Central Java, the number of dengue cases has been on the rise. As of the third week this month, there has been one reported death and 46 people have received hospital treatment. The city treated 14 patients last month.
According to the head of Surakarta Health Agency’s disease prevention and environmental health division, Efy S. Pertiwi, the spread of the disease was likely to increase, with peak infections expected to occur in May. She said the rise had begun at the end of January.
“From the first to the third weeks of January we only had eight cases. From the fourth week of January to the third week of February, however, 46 people had received hospital treatment,” she said on Wednesday, adding that, of the patients, 39 had been children of between 2 and 12 years old.
Health Ministry data shows that Indonesia recorded a total of 100,347 dengue cases last year, with 907 DHF fatalities.
The highest number of recorded fatalities occurred in 2007 when 1,599 people died as a result of the disease.
Ganug Nugroho Adi also contributed to the story from Surakarta
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Indonesia: Jakarta withdraws from plastic bag charge program
Dewanti A. Wardhani, The Jakarta Post 25 Feb 16;
The Jakarta administration has withdrawn from the national policy requiring stores to charge for plastic shopping bags that was issued by the Environment and Forestry Ministry just last week.
The policy was issued by Minister Siti Nurbaya on National Waste Awareness Day through a circular and stipulates that retailers must not give plastic bags to customers for free, but must charge at least
Rp 200 (1 US cent) for each.
The Jakarta administration will instead enforce a 2013 bylaw on waste management, which Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja said was sufficient for reducing plastic bag waste.
Therefore, Jakarta will instead order retailers to use biodegradable plastic bags and leave the decision to charge customers for them up to the retailers.
Jakarta was among seven cities, along with Tangerang, Banten, Bogor, West Java, Bandung, West Java, Banda Aceh, Aceh, Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, and Surabaya, East Java, to implement the policy. There were initially 23 cities, but many postponed action or backtracked because of a lack of preparation.
The seven cities make up almost 10 percent of the national population, but with a population of 10-million Jakarta backing out of the program will mean the six remaining cities would represent only about 6 percent of the country’s 250 million people.
Ahok said that the Jakarta administration would inform retail shops and convenience stores of the administration’s decision.
Article 21 of the bylaw states that shopping centers, shops and markets must use “environmentally friendly” plastic shopping bags as part of a citywide attempt to minimize waste, meaning that the plastic bags used must be made of recyclable and easily biodegradable materials.
Article 129 of the bylaw further states that all shopping centers, shops and markets that neglect or deliberately ignore their obligation to use biodegradable plastic shopping bags as stipulated in article 21 would be fined between a minimum of Rp 5 million and a maximum of Rp 25 million.
“The Jakarta administration has very detailed regulations on plastic bags and our bylaw is already very advanced as opposed to just imposing charges. We will enforce our own bylaw instead of enforcing the plastic bag charge policy,” Ahok told reporters at City Hall Wednesday.
Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) head Junaedi said his office would disseminate information to retailers in the next three months.
He said that the production costs of biodegradable plastic bags were higher than of regular plastic bags, thus retailers could charge customers. Junaedi predicted that biodegradable bags would cost from
Rp 800 to Rp 1,000 each.
He, however, said that retailers could keep the money to cover the production costs of the biodegradable bags.
PT Indomarco Prismatama public relations manager Nenny Kristyawati said that Indomaret had already been using biodegradable bags since 2009. Indomaret does not charge customers for their plastic bags. Other retailers such as Alfamart and The Food Hall also uses biodegradable plastic bags.
Tiza Mafira, the director of the Plastic Bag Diet (DKP) movement said that her organization had never supported biodegradable plastic bags. She said such bags, which had earned Indonesian National Standards (SNI) certification, were not completely degradable in the natural environment.
Tiza, citing 2015 research by the United Nations Environment Programme, said many plastic bags found littering the sea were biodegradable.
“Reducing is the first step before reusing and recycling. The government cannot rely on regular plastic bags or oxodegradable or biodegradable bags as the only solution,” Tiza said, adding that she instead advised the Jakarta administration to implement the plastic bag charge policy.
Jambi stands against plastic bag fee policy
The Jakarta Post 24 Feb 16;
The Jambi administration has expressed opposition to the government’s new plastic bag policy, requiring modern retailers to charge customers for plastic bags. Mayor Sy Fasha said the program would only benefit retailers, calling it “irrelevant”.
“Why don’t we just ban them [plastic bags]?” Fasha said on Monday evening, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
In February last year, prompted by online and offline petitions that attracted 70,000 signatures, the Environment and Forestry Ministry issued a circular stating that retailers should start charging customers for plastic bags.
The policy was implemented in seven major cities on Sunday and is expected to eventually be implemented in a further 23 cities.
Fasha said that his administration had been considering whether or not to issue a regulation that bans the uses of plastic bags.
“It is better for residents to bring their own shopping or plastic bags from home,” he said.
Jakarta to regulate use of plastic bags
Antara 25 Feb 16;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Jakarta provincial administration plans to establish a gubernatorial regulation that manages the implementation of paid plastic bags in markets of the region.
"In order to implement the paid plastic bag policy in Jakarta, the administration will establish a regulation, which necessitates retailers to charge customers for plastic bags," Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat stated here on Thursday.
The gubernatorial regulation will support the new pre-paid plastic bag policy that is being simultaneously applied in 22 cities.
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Forestry Siti Nurbaya had announced the new policy that makes it mandatory for shoppers to be charged a minimum of Rp200 per bag during the commemoration of National Trash-Free Day. The regulation is firstly being implemented by modern retail shops.
According to Hidayat, the gubernatorial regulation will levy penalties on retail shops in modern and traditional markets that do not follow the policy.
"We will test the policy by establishing a gubernatorial regulation as the legal foundation. After the regulation has been implemented successfully, we will establish the regional regulation on the use of plastic bags," Hidayat explained.
Hidayat said the prepaid plastic bag regulation can be implemented easily in modern markets compared to traditional markets.
Thus, the administration will impose appropriate sanctions on stores that do not abide by the policy.
The deputy governor stated that the policy was aimed at improving the peoples awareness of environment preservation by reducing the use of bags that will lessen the amount of plastic waste.
"We hope the people would not use plastic bags as the policy is being implemented in Jakarta. They can bring their own bags while shopping in markets to reduce plastic waste," Hidayat emphasized.
Indonesia plans to reduce its plastic garbage by up to 1.9 tons a year through the garbage reduction program.
According to the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Forestry, the annual national garbage production has reached 64 million tons, of which some 14 percent comprises plastic weighing 8.9 million tons. (*)
Jayapura supports plastic bag policy
The Jakarta Post 27 Feb 16;
JAYAPURA: The Jayapura municipal administration in Papua is making preparations to apply the plastic bag fee policy, Mayor Benhur Tommy Mano said on Friday. The new policy, to be applied in 22 major cities including Jayapura, requires modern retailers to charge costumers for plastic bags.
Mano said that his administration would disseminate information regarding the policy to the public so as to both increase awareness and invite opinion on the matter before implementation, Antara reported.
However, several retailers in the city have already begun to charge customers Rp 200 (1.5 US cents) per plastic bag.
- See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/27/islands-focus-jayapura-supports-plastic-bag-policy.html#sthash.4HnVVfoI.dpuf
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Carbon emission cuts only way to save coral from acid seas: study
Alister Doyle, Reuters Yahoo News 25 Feb 16;
OSLO (Reuters) - Corals under threat from acid seas can only be saved by deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, scientists said on Wednesday, and engineering the chemistry of sea water around coral reefs was only possible on a very small scale.
In a U.S.-led study, scientists mixed chemicals into a lagoon, cut off from the sea at low tide, at Australia's One Tree Island to locally reverse the global trend of acidification that makes it harder for corals to build their stony skeletons.
They showed that the coral, part of Australia's Great Barrier reef, grew better when bathed in seawater mimicking conditions before the Industrial Revolution, which ushered in widespread burning of fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide.
Their study, the first to isolate the impact of acidification from other damaging factors such as rising temperatures and pollution, warned that "technical challenges ... would probably make it infeasible at anything but highly localized scales (for example, protected bays, lagoons)."
"The only real, lasting way to protect coral reefs is to make deep cuts in our carbon dioxide emissions," the study's co-author, Ken Caldeira, from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, California, said.
Carbon dioxide forms a weak acid when mixed with water, undermining the ability of creatures such as corals, crabs, lobsters or oysters to build protective shells.
"Ocean acidification is already taking its toll on coral reef communities. This is no longer a fear for the future; it is the reality of today," lead author, Rebecca Albright, also from the Carnegie Institution, said in a statement of the findings in the journal Nature.
An international report in 2013 said today's pace of ocean acidification is the fastest in 55 million years.
Corals alone contribute almost $30 billion a year to world economies - as nurseries for fish, tourist attractions or protective barriers from storms - according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Reefs are also under threat from record ocean temperatures, compounded by an El Nino weather event in the Pacific.
Governments agreed a deal in Paris in December to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
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Extra $2bn for Cross Island Line to skirt nature reserve likely to be fraction of total cost: Experts
Zhaki Abdullah Straits Times 24 Feb 16; also in AsiaOne
The additional $2 billion that will be incurred by building the proposed Cross Island Line around the Central Catchment Nature Reserve instead of across it is likely to be a fraction of the total cost of the MRT project.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA), which had given the $2 billion figure in response to proposals for the line to skirt around the nature reserve, said yesterday it is unable to estimate the total cost of the 50km Cross Island Line as studies on the entire line have not been completed.
But industry experts estimate that the cost of the project could be as much as $40.7 billion.
This is based in part on calculations for past and ongoing MRT projects, which show that each kilometre of MRT tunnel costs about $350 million to $400 million to design and build.
Costs could go up by 25 per cent if eight-car trains are used, compared with the three- or six-car trains used currently.
The introduction of an express service, among other things, could also increase costs by up to 40 per cent owing to the need to build an additional track.
So the extra $2 billion for building the Cross Island Line around the nature reserve could work out to less than 5 per cent of the total cost of the project.
Nature groups had earlier raised concerns that construction work on the Cross Island Line, expected to stretch from Changi to Jurong, would have a negative impact on the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, Singapore's largest nature reserve. This is especially so if the line cuts across the nature reserve instead of skirting around it.
Having the Cross Island Line cut through the nature reserve involves building a 2km tunnel approximately 40m deep beneath the nature reserve's MacRitchie area. There would be no physical structures on the surface level.
Some members of the public The Straits Times spoke to felt that the additional cost was justified if it helped ease Singapore's transport crunch.
Those who have proposed routing the Cross Island Line round the reserve said the line would serve residents in the area and avoid disrupting the flora and fauna in the reserve.
Dr Vilma D'Rozario, an associate professor at the National Institute of Education, said: "Routing around the reserve to pick up more commuters along the way would certainly help ease road traffic congestion and sardine-packed train conditions."
Financial consultant Johnson Long, 70, believes that the additional cost can be recouped with increased ridership over the years.
Residents who live in the estates that could be affected by the skirting alignment have voiced concerns that their homes would be acquired by the state for the building of the line.
Mr Anthony Oei, 82, who has lived in Yew Lian Park for more than 50 years, questioned the need to divert the line.
"Will we have to give way to wildlife?" he asked.
Others said the possible environmental impact of the line going through the reserve should not be ignored.
Commenting on some suggestions thrown up by the public, a spokesman for the LTA said it is not possible for the stretch of Cross Island Line in question to run under Upper Thomson Road, which is near the nature reserve, owing to limited space caused by construction work on the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line.
A line linking people to jobs
Christopher Tan, Straits Times AsiaOne 24 Feb 16;
The Cross Island Line, announced in January 2013, is a 50km MRT line stretching from Pasir Ris in the north-east to Jurong in the west.
According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority Master Plan 2014, the line will link a fast-growing residential district in the north-east to Singapore's largest industrial hub in the west.
As it goes westwards, it will pass through Loyang, Punggol, Hougang and Ang Mo Kio before reaching Sin Ming. From there, it will go towards Bukit Timah, Clementi and West Coast before terminating at the Jurong Industrial Estate.
Besides linking residents to jobs, the line will serve the upcoming "creative cluster and learning corridor" in Punggol, which will include the Singapore Institute of Technology's new campus.
The line is also part of an overall strategy to build some redundancy into the rail network to mitigate the impact of disruptions.
Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport deputy chairman Ang Hin Kee, who is also an Ang Mo Kio GRC MP, said: "People in Ang Mo Kio, for example, are served only by the North-South Line. If there are repairs or maintenance work on that line, they have no other rail option."
The Cross Island Line is also likely to stop at the proposed terminus of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail line in Jurong East.
When completed in 2030, it will facilitate access to Singapore's seaport, which will move to Tuas by then. The line will provide relief to the already heavily used 57km East-West Line.
The Punggol-Pasir Ris stretch of the Cross Island Line will also form the first leg of the North Shore Line - a yet-to-be announced MRT line that links Pasir Ris to Woodlands.
According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), residents in Punggol will be able to travel to Pasir Ris in 10 to 15 minutes, compared with a 40-minute bus ride today.
The project will be unlike current MRT lines. For instance, trains are likely to have more carriages - eight cars each, or more. Current lines have three- to six-car trains. LTA declined to confirm this, saying only that the Cross Island Line is a "heavy-load" system.
The Straits Times understands the line will be the first to have "scalable" platforms, which can be expanded. This will allow the operator to start off with say, six-car trains, and add more cars per train as ridership picks up.
LTA is also considering express services for the line. This would cut end-to-end travel time, about an hour or so on the current lines.
Use savings from MRT line to fund conservation work
Straits Times Forum 28 Feb 16;
If the Government decides to run the Cross Island MRT Line under the Central Catchment Nature Reserve instead of skirting the forest, thus saving the $2 billion in extra cost ("$2b extra cost if MRT line skirts reserve"; Feb 22), I hope the money saved will go into a fund.
If that is the final decision, I hope the Government will use the savings to fund conservation and restoration activities.
The Government could set this sum of money up as a trust.
Any money taken from the trust for approved conservation and protection projects must be backed by dollar-for-dollar matching support from the private sector.
This would create a win-win situation for all and can, hopefully, assuage the concerns of environmentalists and conservationists who are against the MRT line entering the nature reserve.
Tan Kok Tim
Related links
Love our MacRitchie Forest: walks, talks and petition. Also on facebook.
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No lack of youth with idealism
Straits Times Forum 24 Feb 16;
I disagree that Singapore's youth lack idealism, because there are many young people doing all kinds of volunteer work here ("In search of Singaporean idealism"; last Saturday).
Just because we are not working on a project as big as Ocean Cleanup does not mean we are not working hard to do something about issues we care about.
Marine trash is a pressing issue correlated with mass fish deaths, and it is not well known because no one sees much of it.
The National Environment Agency spends about $1.4 million cleaning recreational beaches every year, but there are also organisations doing something about it, including the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore, Outward Bound Singapore and Sea Shepherd Singapore.
An online response to last Saturday's commentary said that we need to scrape idealism off the classroom floor, but I do not fully agree.
We need to light the fire of idealism in everyone, because everyone knows that the world can be a better place, but not everyone knows how to go about doing it.
Look at the Love Our MacRitchie Forest movement. Its members have dedicated no small amount of time and effort in fighting for an ideal: That our natural heritage deserves to be protected and that our primary forests, what little we have, are worth protecting.
And who are most of these people? Youth.
Look at the People's Movement to Stop Haze. Its members have spent countless hours researching and reaching out to Singaporeans about the causes of the haze, and letting people know that they can do something more than just buying masks and air purifiers.
Who are these people? Youth.
These are ground-up movements by people who genuinely care and want to do something about issues affecting Singapore.
Other areas, such as the arts and humanitarian issues, are also filled with young people with ideals. Their story may not be known to people outside their community, but that does not mean they do not exist.
All the same, we could do with more young people with the ideals and the passion to change things for the better.
So, to the idealistic youth: Let us strive towards our vision of a better world.
Ho Xiang Tian
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NEA to step up efforts to tackle rat problem
Chitra Kumar, Straits Times AsiaOne 24 Feb 16;
Singapore's rat problem is showing no signs of letting up.
About 6,700 complaints were received by the National Environment Agency (NEA) last year, up from around 4,000 in 2014.
The number of food outlet inspections also rose from around 140,000 in 2014 to about 148,000 last year, while enforcement actions were taken against over 190 owners, up from 80.
The NEA, which revealed the figures this week, plans to boost efforts to treat detected rat burrows, including those that fall under the responsibility of other agencies.
Other measures are also being considered, though no details have been given.
The public has been growing increasingly concerned about the rodent problem since a rat infestation near Bukit Batok MRT station in December 2014 and the discovery of a dead rat in a vegetable dish at a Chinese restaurant in Marina Square just over a year ago.
Star Control Pest saw its rat-control work increase by 25 per cent last year.
Its general manager Bernard Chan, 46, told The Straits Times: "In the past, when people and businesses talked about rats, they showed less concern.
"The Bukit Batok incident drew a lot of attention. Our customers are now showing more concern, especially after that Bukit Batok incident and the one at Marina Square."
The NEA said about 85 per cent of rat burrows were found in housing estates with the rest in areas such as private land, buildings and food shops.
The authority said that it provides advice and support to town councils on rat control measures.
As part of its revised Rat Attack programme, the agency gave funding to town councils where the focus was shifted from treating rodent burrows to culling rodents in bin centres and bin chutes which provide their food sources.
The Straits Times understands only two town councils have not opted into the revised programme - Marine Parade Town Council (MPTC) and Jurong-Clementi Town Council.
Acting public relations manager for MPTC Tan You Yi said its current pest control contract, which started in January 2014, will finish at the end of this year.
She added that it opted out of the revised programme because "the funding requirements were different from the contract specifications spelt out in our contract".
Jurong-Clementi Town Council said it has customised its own Rat Attack programme.
Measures include weekly inspections of bin centres, markets, hawker centres and food establishments, as well as fortnightly inspections of other common areas.
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New dengue cases spike after 3 weeks of decline
The number of dengue cases reported in Singapore rose to 594 last week, up from the 419 cases reported in the previous week, according to the National Environment Agency.
Channel NewsAsia 23 Feb 16;
SINGAPORE: The number of new dengue cases in Singapore spiked to 594 in the week ending Feb 20, after a three-week decline which saw the number of reported cases falling to 419, according to latest figures published on the National Environment Agency (NEA) website.
Another 107 cases were reported between Feb 21 and 3.30pm on Feb 22.
A total of 4,072 dengue cases have been reported in Singapore since the start of the year. Two people - a 47-year-old man living in Marsiling Rise and a 67-year-old man living in Toa Payoh - have died of the disease so far.
The Ministry of Health and NEA have warned that the number of dengue cases in Singapore may exceed 30,000 this year, higher than the record of 22,170 reported in 2013.
This is due to factors such as warmer conditions brought about by the El Nino weather phenomenon, faster breeding and maturation cycles of the Aedes mosquito population and a change in the main circulating dengue virus, said both agencies at a joint media briefing.
The biggest cluster of dengue cases is now located in Yishun Ring Road and Yishun Street 81, with 109 cases reported, including nine in the past fortnight. A dengue cluster in Tampines, which was the biggest islandwide until last week, was taken off NEA’s list of high-risk areas after no new cases were reported in two weeks.
- CNA/cy
Fears of record dengue cases after 40 per cent spike last week
Samantha Boh, The Straits Times AsiaOne 24 Feb 16;
The number of dengue cases spiked by more than 40 per cent last week, raising fears that the virus could reach record levels this year.
After three consecutive weeks of decline, there were 594 reported cases between Feb 14 and 20, 175 more than in the previous week.
The National Environment Agency (NEA), which released the figures yesterday, stressed the need for vigilance, and urged the public to "continue taking action to stem the transmission of dengue".
Last week, the NEA warned that the total number of cases this year could surpass 30,000, exceeding the record 22,170 cases in 2013, as a result of warmer temperatures due to the El Nino weather phenomenon and a switch in the predominant virus serotype to DEN-2 from DEN-1.
El Nino, which causes warmer- than-usual temperatures, promotes faster breeding and shorter incubation times for the dengue virus, while the switch in serotype is historically followed by a spike in dengue cases due to lower immunity to the new strain.
Dengue clusters often die out spontaneously, according to Professor Annelies Wilder-Smith of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at Nanyang Technological University. "The reason is that a certain level of herd immunity builds up in an outbreak-affected community."
But doing nothing, to allow for the development of the herd immunity, risks the spread of the virus to other areas, resulting in the formation of new clusters, according to Associate Professor Ooi Eng Eong, deputy director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at the Duke-NUS Medical School.
However, the NEA said that with good control of the virus, fewer people get infected.
The NEA will step up efforts to eradicate dengue, including the launch of its Mozzie Wipeout Campaign on Sunday, which teaches residents how to prevent mosquito breeding in their homes.
Meanwhile, the country's largest active dengue cluster in Tampines - which has seen 280 cases at Tampines avenues 1, 3, 4, 5 and 8 since last November - has been declared "closed" by the NEA.
A cluster is closed when it has fewer than two cases over two weeks.
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Malaysia: Forestry dept awaiting A-G’s nod to prosecute over 100 illegal logging cases
SHARON LING The Star 24 Feb 16;
KUCHING: The Forestry Department here is awaiting the Attorney-General’s go ahead to prosecute over 100 illegal logging cases.
State Forestry director Sapuan Ahmad said the department was awaiting instructions from the federal level before it could take the cases to court.
"As far as the department is concerned, we have completed our investigations into the cases, but they have to be evaluated and processed by the federal side.
"This can be speeded up once the power to prosecute rests with the state. Once this power is given to Sarawak, more cases can be mentioned in court," he told reporters after opening a Sarawak Heart of Borneo (HoB) workshop for government agencies here yesterday.
Prosecuting power is one of several administrative empowerment measures recently agreed to between the Federal and state governments.
Under this measure, state legal officers will be authorised to prosecute cases for offences under state ordinances.
Sapuan said illegal logging had slowed down since the state government's crackdown began in 2014.
He said some 47,000 cubic metres of illegal logs were seized last year compared to 90,000 cubic metres the previous year.
In his speech earlier, Sapuan said timber licence areas within the Heart of Borneo must be certified for sustainable forest management by 2017.
HoB covers about 20 million hectares of contiguous tropical forest in Borneo, including two million hectares in Sarawak.
The programme aims to enhance conservation and sustainable development while minimising forest degradation and its associated loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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