Haze? So what's new<\/p>\n
The Straits Times, Asia News Network, Singapore<\/p>\n
A twilight grey hung over Singapore island for most of the day
\non Wednesday. The sun never showed, despite the thin cloud cover.
\nSensitive noses detected an acridity in the air. People with
\nshort memories can get by muttering about those forest fires in
\nIndonesia -- again.<\/p>\n
But those for whom the 1997 occurrence -- the mother of all
\nhaze seasons in Southeast Asia -- was a public-health hazard and
\na socio-economic disrupter rolled into one, will be wondering how
\nbad this episode can become. Television pictures of Kuala
\nLumpur's downtown features like the Petronas Twin Towers, poking
\nghost-like through the muck, were not reassuring for
\nSingaporeans.<\/p>\n
If the Klang Valley just a gust of wind away could look like
\n1997 in Singapore, they would reason that things could also get
\nbad here. The skies were clearer yesterday, but the National
\nEnvironment Agency took the precaution of saying a change in wind
\ndirection in the next few days will have Singapore in the path of
\nsmoke from raging forest fires in Sumatra. The haze is no
\navenging freak of nature, like cyclones and volcanic eruptions,
\nbut for Singaporeans it is as bad as it can get.<\/p>\n
The economic cost of the 1997 pollution to Southeast Asia was
\nnot small. Air traffic disruptions, canceled tourist bookings,
\ncrop damage and loss of manhours through absenteeism and illness
\nbrought losses of US$10 billion. Singapore bore a share of the
\nlosses, not to mention the incidence of respiratory ailments
\namong older people and young children.<\/p>\n
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 20
\nmillion people in the region were exposed to harmful pollutants.
\nIt was estimated that burning underground peat bogs in Indonesia
\ndischarged more carbon dioxide than that emitted by all the power
\nstations and cars in Western Europe in one year. It is possible
\nthe conclusion here was off, but the empirical picture presented
\nwas consistent with how the world saw Southeast Asia in 1997: The
\nplace was to be avoided.<\/p>\n
What is depressing is how little the pathology of the problem
\nhas changed in the intervening years. Indonesia, as the primary
\nsource of forest fires through wanton clearing, did well to
\nrewrite forestry laws and bring closer coordination between
\nlocal-area and provincial authorities with oversight of the
\nimportant sector.<\/p>\n
The agencies have reported (with figures given) that
\nplantation companies had been prosecuted for illegal clearing. A
\nnumber of them had had their licenses revoked. But contrast this
\nprogress with the annual persistent incidence of forest fires --
\nlike those raging now in Kalimantan and Sumatra -- and a
\ncontradiction cannot be reconciled.<\/p>\n
Have a lot more primary forests been parceled out for logging,
\nthus adding to the dimensions of the activity? If not, weak
\nenforcement and its corollary, corruption to circumvent the law,
\nhave to be suspected. It is reasonable to ask if the real problem
\nis a vicious conjoint of liberal forest cutting and non-existent
\npolicing. The Asian Development Bank reported in a 1997 study
\nthat one weakness hampering Indonesian handling of the matter was
\na lack of political will.<\/p>\n
Asean as a bloc should have better success in combating the
\npollution, but the record has been disappointing. Environment
\nministers have agreed on a number of action plans to monitor land
\nclearing and harmonize responses to fires. The latest document
\ndrawn up in 2002 demands that offending countries act quickly so
\nas to minimize the effects of trans-boundary pollution. But the
\nhaze makes its precise seasonal appearance.<\/p>",
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