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.