S'pore warns of rash of forest fires in Indonesia

S'pore warns of rash of forest fires in Indonesia

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore on Monday warned of a significant increase in forest fires on the nearby Indonesian island of Sumatra, raising fears that the smoky haze could spread amid drier than normal weather conditions.

"In the past few days, satellite pictures have shown a significant increase in the number of hot spots in central Sumatra," the Singapore Ministry of Environment's deputy secretary Wang Mong Lin said.

"Over 90 hot spots were found in central Sumatra on May 14 and some were emitting smoke haze towards the Malacca Straits," he added.

Hot spots in satellite images are caused by fires often set deliberately in land-clearing operations. The Indonesian government has vowed to curtail the operations, but has encountered major problems in doing so.

Wang said the yearly south-westerly monsoon season which starts in May was expected to be drier than usual.

He said the Indonesian Environmental Impact Management Agency had already been sent copies of the latest satellite pictures depicting the forest fires on the Indonesian island.

"The Indonesian authorities are working on action plans," Wong said.

Wong, however, stressed that the situation was unlikely to deteriorate to levels experienced in 1997.

Then, fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan covered much of southeast Asia with a choking haze for months, causing extensive health, transport, tourism and other problems, as well as billions of dollars in lost revenue.

At a one-day meeting held in April, Southeast Asian environment ministers vowed to intensify cooperation to avert the problem of smoky haze from regional forest fires.

The meeting in Brunei was the latest in a series of informal talks among regional environment ministers which first began in 1998 when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launched a comprehensive action plan to tackle the haze problem.