Worried, South-East Asia Scours Skies for Haze
8/13/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Worried, South-East Asia Scours Skies for Haze
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 13, 1999
Byline: Ivan Gan
SINGAPORE, Aug 13 (IPS) - Smog mostly from Indonesia's forest fires
has crept back to hound its haze-weary neighbours, just a few weeks
after South-east Asian governments pledged here to take quick action
to battle such common woes.
So far the pall of pollution across South-east Asia is nowhere near
that of the 1997 episode, which interfered with flights and caused
disruptions costing some 4 billion dollars in tourism, public health
and transport.
But already worried Singaporeans and Malaysians are scouring the
skies for signs or a worsening of the smog, and organisers of the
South-east Asian Games in Brunei have expressed their concern about
it affecting the tournament.
As in the past, the onset of the dry season in the Indonesian islands
of Kalimantan and Sumatra has led to fires, especially those started
by plantations for land-clearing, that produce thick haze enveloping
nearby countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
In the 1997 haze emergency, irresponsible practices for land-
clearing cost Indonesia more than one million hectares of forest.
In light of the adverse impact of the haze, the Association of South-
east Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a joint communique at its annual
meeting here in late July agreeing to ''deal with environmental
issues and other transnational problems''.
ASEAN experienced a surge in confidence following strong signs of
recovery from the economic crisis, but the return of the smog will
test a grouping already faulted for doing too little, too late in the
wake of the 1997 smog occurrence.
This time, ASEAN environment ministers have decided to meet on the
haze issue earlier. A spokesman at Singapore's Ministry of the
Environment said a meeting will be held at the end of August.
But it does not help that countries like Malaysia, instead of acting
to prepare and protect residents from this year's episode, has opted
to stop publicising air pollution readings for fear of losing
precious tourism revenue.
Yet Suwido Limin, an agronomist from central Borneo, says this year's
haze could become ''worse'' than the 1997 one if the fires ravaging
the forests of West Kaliamantan and Sumatra are not extinguished.
But Malaysia's environment minister Law Hieng Ding has been quoted as
saying the government would no longer give full pollution readings to
avoid causing ''unnecessary alaarm among the public''.
He said, however, that the government would release information it
deemed necessary.
''But this is about the public's right to know, and not for
tourists,'' argued Malaysian environmental activist Gurmit Singh.
Malaysian studies about the effects of the 1997 haze, along with a
World Health Organisation (WHO) completed in 1998, also have not been
published, news reports say.
The prospect of a severe smog episode has again put pressure on the
Indonesian government and raised tensions between it and its
neighbours.
''Related departments and institutions must as early as possible
coordinate to take steps to prevent the fires from becoming more
widespread,'' Indonesian President Bacharrudin Jusuf Habibie said
recently.
But many wonder about Indonesia's capacity to clamp down on errant
plantation owners and whether it has adequate resources, given its
other economic problems, to put massive fires out under control.
Recently, visibility in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, was
down to about 2.5 miles and Singapore's Pollution Standards Index
(PSI) nearly surpassed 100, which would have been considered an
unhealthy level.
So far, the worst effects of the haze are seen in Sumatra's Riau
province, where the PSI reached as high as 500 last week. Health
centres have been ordered by officials to stay open round- the-clock
in case of emergencies arising from the haze.
The Malaysian state of Sarawak was the hardest-hit by the 1997 smog
problem, with the reading on Malaysia's Air Pollution Index hitting
650 in September last year, or high above the hazardous level.
The coming weeks and months will show whether the ''action plan''
that ASEAN says it has put in place after the 1997 episode will work.
In their July meeting in Kuala Lumpur, South-east Asian environment
ministers unveiled a plan that included education, fire prevention,
fire-fighting and surveillance techniques.
Ever since the dreaded smog became a significant problem at the end
of July, only Malaysia has offered Indonesia aid to battle the
smouldering flames engulfing its forests.
Indonesia also banned clearing of land by fire, but enforcement has
been difficult. While Indonesia's parliament drafted a new law in
July, critics feel that it still does not make for adequate control
over logging companies.
In the end, Koh Kheng Lian, a law professor here, says Indonesia's
neighbours who are paying a high price for the haze need to exert
even more pressure upon Jakarta.
Some people, like Koh, say that the ASEAN way of consensus- making
before action is inadequate to address the smog. For many, there have
been enough of diplomatic niceties so far.