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Alarming haze records in Singapore, Malaysia

Singapore and Malaysia recorded alarming levels of air pollution on Thursday as the Indonesian government has yet to quell forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan

Nani Afrida and Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, September 11, 2015

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Alarming haze records in Singapore, Malaysia

S

ingapore and Malaysia recorded alarming levels of air pollution on Thursday as the Indonesian government has yet to quell forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Air pollution in Singapore reached its highest level in a year on Thursday as smog from Indonesian forest fires shrouded the island nation in a veil of gray.

The Pollutant Standards Index, Singapore'€™s main measure of air pollution, hit 187 at 8 p.m., cruising above the official '€œunhealthy'€ bandwidth of 100, according to the National Environment Agency.

Anything above 200 is considered '€œvery unhealthy'€ particularly for young children, the elderly and those with heart and lung diseases.

In 2013, the same three-hour index hit a historic high of 401, way above the '€œhazardous'€ mark of 300.

Singapore has issued transboundary haze pollution laws since last year, targeting those responsible for causing such fires if burning results in unhealthy levels of haze,

The PSI level has exceeded 101 since 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to the Singaporean government website, haze.gov.sg.

Several areas in Malaysia have also suffered from poor air quality.

According to readings published on the Malaysian Department of Environment'€™s (DOE) website, six locations including Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman were rated as unhealthy (100-200) on the API as of 8 p.m. on Thursday.

'€œAccording to reports from Kuala Lumpur, moderate haze started to disappear this morning. But, Malaysia said that the haze in Kuala Lumpur did not come from Sumatra or Kalimantan,'€ Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said on Thursday.

As of Thursday, there were 118 hotspots detected in Sumatra and 1,466 hotspots in Kalimantan.

Jambi administration ordered on Wednesday all schools to close down all activities for the next two days due to thickening haze with the air pollution standard index [ISPU] reaching the hazardous level of 324.

Previously the newly appointed head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Willem Rampangilei said the economic loss caused by the haze could not be dismissed as insignificant. Quoting a 2013 World Bank report, he said that the total financial loss that Riau suffered from the haze amounted to Rp 20 trillion (US$1.4 billion).

He said that, after being sworn in as BNPB head and receiving instructions from President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to put an end to the haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan, he stipulated a deadline to finish dealing with the haze within two weeks.

The Indonesian military (TNI) has joined the effort to put out the fires, deploying on Thursday 1,059 military personnel to seek and extinguish hotspots in Sumatran forests.

The military, consisting of personnel from the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, are part of a task force to extinguish wildfires in the forest. They were transported to South Sumatra and Jambi using four military transport planes Hercules C-130 from Halim Perdana Kusuma military airport.

'€œWe still have additional 1,150 personnel as the back up and they are ready to be deployed when needed,'€ Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo told journalists on the sidelines of military deployment at the military airport.

Gatot said that two battalions of military personnel would be stationed in South Sumatra, while the rest would be in Jambi. They would comb the forest and seek the hotspots. When they find the source of the fires, they could extinguish them.

According to Gatot, besides deploying its personnel directly to the forests, the military could also extinguish the hotspots from the air using water-bombing.

'€œThe military will prioritize forest in three regencies in South Sumatra; Musi Banyuasin, Banyuasin and Ogan Komering Ilir,'€ the military chief said.

He also asked his men to not hesitate in taking perpetrators to the police, even if the perpetrators were military members.

'€œWe aim to clear the area from haze by the end of this month,'€ Gatot said.
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