Haze now, acid rain and other problems to come for SE Asia

Haze now, acid rain and other problems to come for SE Asia

By Paul Alexander

SINGAPORE (AP): El Nio brought the severe drought that turned the forests of Indonesia into tinderboxes. Now it's delaying the arrival of seasonal monsoons needed to douse the raging wildfires that have blanketed Southeast Asia in smoke for weeks.

But environmentalists fear that whenever the rains arrive, they will bring big problems of their own -- from increased acidity in soils and rivers to severe erosion of denuded lands.

"It's a lose-lose situation," said Ho Wai Chi of the Greenpeace environmentalist group. "We want the fires to be put out by the monsoons, but we're going to get acid rain, floods and other effects on the ecosystem."

Those potential calamities seemed far away to most people last week as thick haze continued to plague the region, stretching from Thailand to Australia and affecting millions of people.

The smog has added to the woes of the region's economies, which have been reeling from a plunge in investor confidence that has driven down the value of their currencies. Tourists are staying away, worker productivity is down and crop growth has been hurt.

Azwar Anas, an Indonesian government minister, said last Friday that the fires have damaged 74,000 acres and ignited underground peat and coal deposits that experts say will be particularly difficult to extinguish.

Weather satellites showed 14 "hot spots" still burning on Indonesia's Sumatra island, and more may be hidden by the haze's density. Cars have to turn their headlights on during the day in badly affected towns.

Several governments reported increases in the numbers of people suffering respiratory problems.

Smoke reached Australia for the first time, causing haze in Darwin before winds shifted. Meteorologists said the smoke cloud was more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) long and 185 miles (300 kilometers) wide.

"It was amazing. Usually smoke disperses really quickly, but this was such a concentrated mass," forecaster Graeme King said.

Some rain sprinkled on Singapore, Jakarta, Indonesia, and other areas last Thursday, but it had little effect -- just a tantalizing promise of the monsoons that normally have begun by now.

Residents have been praying for monsoons since July when the fires -- many set by timber companies, plantation owners and small farmers to clear land -- got out of control.

But Ho, the Greenpeace activist, said that what already is "a tragedy, a disaster," will not end once the rains arrive.

"When you burn a forest, it creates a lot of sulfur in the air, which then leads to acid rain," he said. "It will increase the acidity of soil in many areas, which affects the nutrients, which affects the whole ecosystem."

While government officials played down the impact of acid rain on city residents, whose water is treated, rural areas could be hurt by contaminated rivers. At least one large fish kill has been linked to high water acidity in Singapore.

"We're trying to get word to the people so they can be aware of the danger of acid rain." said Maya Sarah, a researcher at the Indonesian Environmental Forum.

The private environmental group also warned that heavy downpours could wash away loose soil in areas where vegetation has burned off and cause widespread flooding.

Ho said the problem is magnified because the fires have hit primary rainforests and the lush undergrowth that is critical for fertility and soil protection.

Some researchers, Ho said, fear the haze already has destroyed the navigation systems of bees that are crucial for pollination of many plant species.

And "no one knows what the long-term effect of the haze will be on the health of the people," said Gurmit Singh of the Environment Protection Society of Malaysia.

Twelve people have died of haze-related respiratory ailments on Sumatra, Indonesia's official Antara news agency reported recently week. It added that 40,000 Indonesians are suffering respiratory infections and eye irritations.

Health advisories for air pollution also were issued for at least two days each in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where skyscrapers periodically disappeared in the smog. Some people wore gauze masks.

Poor visibility led officials to close several airports again in Indonesia and Malaysia. They also worried ships might collide or helicopters might get lost while servicing off-shore oil wells.

About 60 people have drowned in Indonesia in several river boat collisions blamed on the haze. Twenty-nine died when a cargo ship collided with a supertanker in the Strait of Malacca in poor visibility in September.

Local media reports said Malaysia's government told university scientists and environmentalists to stop commenting on the haze problem, fearing further damage to its multibillion-dollar tourist industry.

There are no reliable estimates on the decline, but in the resort island of Penang, hoteliers said occupancy rates have fallen from 80 percent to 30 percent because of the smoke.