Haze likely in the next 3 months

The cause: hotter weather plus burning activities in region; S'pore to run 2 new anti-haze programmes in Jambi, Indonesia By Liaw Wy-Cin

BRACE yourselves for bad-air days ahead.

The smoky haze is likely to be back in the next three months as a result of a combination of hotter, drier weather and burning activities in Malaysia and Indonesia.

However, Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said the number of hot spots in Indonesia has come down considerably.

'I wouldn't say there will be no haze. I think the hot spots have come down. Indonesia's own plan of action is to reduce the number by 50 per cent. That means there will still be hot spots, but the number will be reduced.'

He added that his own sense of the situation was that efforts on the ground were already in place, but that 'like all plans, there is always a weakest link that we don't understand until it gets implemented'.

The Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre has noted a weakening of the La Nina weather phenomenon, which would have brought wet weather to douse the smoky fires that the region's farmers set.

With the phenomenon weakening, the next three months are expected to be drier than in the same period last year.

The south-west monsoon winds, expected to blow rain away from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, will also bring drier weather, which could set the scene for Singapore to be enveloped in the choking haze.

Dr Yaacob gave this forecast at a press conference following a meeting with his counterparts from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand yesterday.

It was the group's fifth meeting since the setting up of a task force in late 2006 to tackle the problem, which has hit the five countries almost annually since 1997.

Farmers and plantation owners in Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands clear the land by slashing its vegetation and burning it in the middle of the year, ahead of the planting season.

Dr Yaacob and Indonesia's Deputy Minister for Nature Conservation Enhancement and Environmental Degradation Control, Mrs Masnellyarti Hillman, said the containment measures discussed at the meeting centred on involving local communities in combating the haze.

Malaysia, for example, is working with Indonesia to train communities in fire-fighting in Riau province. Both countries are also installing haze-monitoring equipment there.

Dr Yaacob unveiled two programmes Singapore will run with Indonesia's Jambi province in north Sumatra. One is to train farmers to rear fish for export instead of growing crops, to turn them away from slash-and-burn cultivation; the other is aimed at keeping the water level in the area's peatlands up. This is because when they dry out, they catch fire easily.

The two programmes, expected to cost $800,000, come on top of the $1 million set aside earlier for seven Singapore-Jambi programmes.

Of the seven, two have been completed. These provided training for Jambi officials in reading satellite pictures for hot-spot information, and for farmers and officials on eco-friendly farming.

The ministers will meet again in Phuket, Thailand, in October.

(source: www.straitstimes.com/print/Free/Story/STIStory_251014.html)