Fires in Indonesia's Sumatra Raise Threat of Haze
4/26/99
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Title: Fires in Indonesia's Sumatra Raise Threat of Haze
Source: Reuters Limited
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: April 26, 1999
Byline: Raj Rajendran
SINGAPORE, April 26 (Reuters) - Satellite images show a rise in
forest fire ``hot spots'' in Indonesia's Sumatra island, raising the
threat of smoke haze in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia, experts
said on Monday.
They said the fires were close to logging tracks and plantations in
Central Sumatra.
``Near the end of last week we observed quite a lot of fires...at the
moment they are in Central Sumatra,'' said Lim Hock, director of the
National University of Singapore's Centre for Remote Imaging,
ImageSensing and Processing (CRISP).
``They are next to big networks of logging tracks and plantation
areas,'' he said.
CRISP monitors the skies over Southeast Asia for Singapore's Ministry
of Environment as part of a regional haze action plan drawn up by
Southeast Asian countries last year to combat smog.
Fires in Central Sumatra earlier this month sent Singapore's
Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) to its highest level in a year at 77.
The air quality has since improved. The index stood at 53 on Monday,
still outside a range considered healthy, the Ministry of Environment
said.
A PSI reading between zero and 50 is considered healthy. A 51-100
range is ``moderate,'' 101-200 ``unhealthy,'' 201-300 ``very
unhealthy,'' 301-400 ``hazardous'' and 401-500 ``very hazardous.''
Lim said the fires, so far spotted only in Central Sumatra, covered a
large area across the huge island which neighbours Singapore and
Malaysia.
``They (the fires) are not as big as what we saw in '97, '98 but are
building up quickly ... At the moment we can see a lot of smoke
plumes rising here and there. Where we zoomed in we did see a lot of
fires,'' he said.
A Meteorological Service of Singapore (MSS) spokesman told Reuters
that hazy conditions can be expected over Singapore for the next few
days.
``I don't expect it will develop into a widespread situation like
1997 but it will be dry for short periods and with the right wind
conditions we expect a slightly hazy condition,'' said Wong Teo Suan
deputy director of the MSS.
In 1997 and early 1998, much of Southeast Asia was covered with large
swathes of choking smoke haze as a result of massive fires in
Indonesia's Borneo and Sumatra islands.
The fires destroyed five million hectares (12 million acres) of
forest, agriculture and bush -- an area equivalent to Costa Rica --
and caused $4.4 billion in damage.
Wong said Sumatra's current fires were due to a one to two- week dry
spell which made forests in the area ripe for burning.
He said one or two days of sustained rain were forecast in the area
some time this week because the region was still benefitting from the
effects of the wet La Nina weather phenomenon.
The fires have raised government concern and Southeast Asian
ministers on April 16 agreed to redouble fire-fighting efforts.