Ministers warn of haze risks

Ministers warn of haze risks

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AFP): ASEAN environment ministers called on Tuesday for "immediate and firm" action in the region to tackle haze, which they warned could worsen due to dry weather in the coming months.

The ministers made the call at a one-day meeting here which also announced that Indonesia, where raging fires caused much of the smoky haze in the region, would launch with immediate effect an action plan to prevent fires during the dry season.

The launching of the "immediate action plan" would begin in Riau, one of the provinces in the western Indonesian island of Sumatra where most of the hotspots have been detected so far.

Similar action plans devised for other provinces in haze prone areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan in Borneo should also be implemented as soon as possible. Indonesia shares the island of Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei.