El Nino may worsen Southeast Asian haze
El Nino may worsen Southeast Asian haze
SINGAPORE (Reuter): The smoky haze affecting parts of Southeast Asia may worsen as a result of the El Nino global weather pattern, the daily Straits Times reported yesterday.
The newspaper quoted Tan Gee Paw, permanent secretary at Singapore's environment ministry, as saying El Nino could extend this year's dry season in the region.
"Nineteen ninety-seven is expected to be a very dry year in Indonesia, due to the current El Nino phenomenon, which is expected to be the worst this century," Tan said.
"The dry season may last until December, and the smoke haze situation could deteriorate as it did in 1994 when our air quality reached the 'unhealthy' range for 17 days."
El Nino -- Spanish for "The Child" and named after the Christ child by Peruvian fishermen because it usually peaks around Christmas -- is a warming of water in the southeastern Pacific Ocean that disrupts weather patterns around the globe.
It is known to cause drought in some areas and floods in others.
The Straits Times said Singapore's environment ministry was working closely with Indonesia to tackle the haze, which is caused by the smoke of thousands of forest and bush fires across the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Singapore, Malaysia and large areas of Indonesia have been blanketed by the haze this season and have issued public warnings about exercising outdoors.
The newspaper quoted Tan as saying the impact on Singapore so far had been less dramatic than on Malaysia because the winds had not been blowing the smoke directly towards the city-state on most days. But he said El Nino might make the haze worse.
Singapore's air quality index, which has a scale of zero to 500, stood at 71 on Friday, putting air quality in the "moderate" range. Special precautions are taken if the index rises above 100, the newspaper said.
It said there would be advice on television, radio and in the newspapers in Singapore if the situation deteriorated.
Singaporean officials have been passing satellite images of smoke 'hot spots' to Indonesian authorities to allow them to locate and control ground fires, it added.