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View point: Hazardous haze, death and disease: Who's responsible?
I live in Jakarta, which is known to be one of the most polluted cities in the world
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I
live in Jakarta, which is known to be one of the most polluted cities in the world. Last week I was in Singapore for the first birthday of my grandson Amartya. So why did I hanker to go back to the Big Durian?
Because the air in Singapore was making me sick.
I arrived Thursday evening last week. When I woke up the next morning, I had developed a sore throat, a persistent cough, a nasty headache and stinging, bleary eyes.
Oh no! What a time to get sick, right before Amar's birthday bash. I rarely get sick, what could be the cause?
The haze! Of course! How ironic that I had to go to Singapore to feel the effects of the particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide-filled smoke from Indonesian forest fires, which have been raging for weeks this year.
I confess, I live in Cinere, on the outskirts of Jakarta, which has relatively clean air, unlike many parts of Jakarta, which also have the same pollutants emitted by forest fires. Other sources of haze are power plants, industrial activities and traffic, as well as farming practices.
Haze is in fact a generic term for an atmospheric condition where particles, smoke, dust and moisture suspend in the air, obscuring visibility. It would be great if that was all it did ' we would simply be walking around in a haze bumping into each other.
Unfortunately, as I painfully experienced, it also has, at best, uncomfortable consequences and, at worst, death, depending on the Pollutant Standard Index (PSI) level.
The PSI is the air pollution index used in Singapore that gets its readings from a network of air monitoring stations located around the city-state. In connection to the haze's effect on health, 0-50 is good; 51-100 is moderate (with few or no health effects for the general population); 101-200 is unhealthy (everyone may begin to experience health effects); 201-300 is very unhealthy (health warnings of emergency conditions); 301+ is hazardous, and the nation would be on health alert as everyone may experience more serious health effects, e.g. asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or heart failure.
When I was in Singapore, the PSI was 181. Whoa! That's in the unhealthy category, and being sensitive to environmental and weather changes, no wonder the effect the haze had on me was almost instantaneous.
In June 2013, Singapore experienced a record-high PSI of 401. Can't imagine how I would have suffered had I been there.
Considering that the haze is now becoming a regular part of life in Singapore, lasting for weeks on end, is it surprising that the Singaporean government repeatedly offered the Indonesian government help to put out the fires.
But Indonesia rejected the offer, as we are managing so well by ourselves ' not!
Besides Singapore, currently the raging forest fires are affecting parts of Malaysia, which prompted Prime Minister Najib Razak to call on Indonesia to act against those responsible for forest and agricultural fires that have blanketed the region in smog for weeks. 'Only Indonesia alone can gather evidence and convict the companies concerned,' Najib was quoted as saying.
Invariably exhortations never work on the Indonesian government. In fact our 73-year-old Vice President Jusuf Kalla has said that the forest fires are a natural disaster, like the forest fires in California. He even set up a website which allows Singaporeans, Malaysians and anyone else, to express their appreciation and love for Indonesia for providing clean air 11 months of the year (http://thankyouindoforthecleanair.com/). It has a 'thank you' button which you can simply click. Strangely enough, the button had been clicked zero times. Wonder why.
In 2013, Agung Laksono, when he was coordinating minister for social welfare, in response to Singapore complaining about the haze, said, 'Singapore shouldn't be like children, in such a tizzy.' Oh. And his statement was that of a mature adult?
Kalla naturally also refused to apologize for the haze Indonesia has been producing for decades. National pride and sovereignty above all, yet again?
Sorry Mr. VP, it's transnational haze. Indonesians are suffering from it also in cities like Jambi, Palangkaraya, Pekanbaru, towns in Aceh and other areas that have experienced PSI levels up to 2000. Earlier in the year, a state of emergency was declared in Riau.
Understandably Singapore's Minister of Foreign Affairs Shanmugam slammed the statements made by 'senior people' in the Indonesian government.
While he acknowledged that the Indonesian government was taking steps to deal with the situation, he added 'at the same time, we are hearing some shocking statements' from the authorities there.
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo was more realistic and matter of fact on the issue of the haze. He admitted that Indonesians were also victims of the haze, but that it would take three years to deal with the matter. Three years? Three days was already too long for me.
Why is the haze problem so hard to resolve anyway? In the Oct. 6 edition of this paper, Jackson Ewing published an article precisely with that title ('Southeast Asia's haze problem: Why so hard to resolve?'), which was an excellent explanation of the complexity of the problem. Read it.
In the meantime, what can be done? What is certain is that we can't seem to leave it simply to governments. Not that civil society and environmental groups have not been actively trying to deal with the problem. But maybe it's time to step up our efforts, by setting up a people-to-people forum for example. After all, we are all connected by the air that we breathe.
Next time I go to Singapore for Amar's birthday, instead of having the party in his parent's condo's air-conditioned function room, I hope we can have it in the outdoor pool area, and celebrate not just his birthday, but also the clean air.
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The writer is the author of Julia's Jihad.
