Smog sets off Southeast Asian alarm bells

Smog sets off Southeast Asian alarm bells

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Smog from raging fires spurred
Malaysia yesterday to launch a nationwide drive to spot blazes
and prompted Brunei to close schools.

The moves came amid mounting fears that forest and bush fires
stoked by dry weather would throw a blanket of acrid smoke over
much of Southeast Asia in a repeat of last year.

An official with Indonesia's environment impact agency,
Bapedal, told Reuters yesterday some 250,000 hectares of forest
land had been destroyed in fires that have swept Borneo's East
Kalimantan province since January. Last year, fires destroyed
about 30,000 hectares of the province.

Environment Minister Juwono Sudarsono blamed the fires on the
clearing of forests. He said because the government had not paid
attention to the cause of the fires, it was as if Kalimantan was
a region without government.

The El Nino weather phenomenon has cut rainfall over much of
Southeast Asia, including Borneo island where Brunei is located
along with Eastern Malaysia and Indonesia's Kalimantan.

Fires in Indonesia last year sent a swathe of smog across much
of Southeast Asia, prompting health fears across the archipelago
and in Malaysia and Singapore.

The haze returned to Singapore at the weekend and a weather
expert said the small island state was set for a week of hazy
weather as winds push in smog from Borneo.

Environmental agencies and government officials say plantation
companies are most to blame for taking advantage of the dry
conditions and poor law enforcement to clear forest for palm oil,
rubber and timber plantations.

Malaysia launched yesterday a nationwide campaign to combat
thickening smog, using helicopters and airplanes to spot fires
and vowing to put people who start blazes into jail.

Police and fire experts will initially use a helicopter and
three airplanes for surveillance. Authorities were considering
approaching the air force for more aircraft, local media said.

The federal government is pressing the courts to impose the
maximum 100,000 ringgit (US$27,000) fine and a five-year prison
sentence on those who engage in open burning, Environment
Minister Law Hieng Ding said.

Brunei ordered schools closed as the Pollutant Standard Index
reached very hazardous levels. For coming days, parents were told
to call a national hotline or listen to state radio each morning
to learn if schools would be closed that day.

Brunei largely escaped last year's smog, but since mid-
February has been blanketed by smoke. A fire services department
spokesman said more than 3,600 hectares of forest had burned in
Brunei this year.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning,
diplomats said, urging people with respiratory conditions to
consider postponing travel because of the smog.