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.