The Haze Problem

For the past few days, and perhaps for the coming week, a quick look at the morning sky would give a view of not just a misty morning, but an hazy scene. In fact, recent haze levels have again hit a new high on unhealthy levels.

Visibility reached a wary low, posing imminent danger to cars on expressways, pedestrians crossing the road etc. Not only did overall air quality drop, symptoms such as teary eyes, difficulty to breathe were subtle but notable when one is near the haze in the air.

This problem is pertinent not only because of the adverse social impacts it poses to Singapore, but because it has proven not to be just a exotic one night stand, but instead more apparently long-term problem that will constantly haunt Indonesia's neighboring countries.

When the problem first surfaced around June in 2008, Indonesia pinpointed the blame to "an uncontrollable rise in forest fires" and also pledged to tackle the problem. However, the problem again resurfaced last year in August and once again drifted into our country recently this year.

As such, seeing that this problem cannot be just a temporary one, it is necessary for the Singapore government to implement measures that can really solve the root of the problem, or at least longer-term in its alleviation.

So far, solutions that have been reported seem rather irrelevant and ineffective. The government's action plan that requires our countries' environmental agencies to pledge haze impact reduction appears to be irrelevant because there are really little effective ways to contain the haze, or to minimize its various impacts, because it is inevitable that people have to go outdoors for daily routines.

The Asean seems rather irrelevant in this matter too. Although it has come up with a Asean Transboundary haze Pollution agreement, Indonesia, almost definitely the only country that produces this amount of haze, is also definitely the only country that has not rectified this agreement.

In my opinion, Asean should be more aggressive and pressurizing on this matter; even the UN can be involved in this matter. Due to the fact that Indonesia's actions not only affect itself, but also the whole region in general, it is logical that Asean reserves the right to intervene in Indonesia's methods and policies used to solve this problem. Countries involved such as Singapore should also stick in a head to solve a pertinent problem that is not only Indonesia's "domestic affairs", but a regional problem.

Solutions such as the combined purchasing of satellites to monitor regional forests, gathering teams of environmentalist to research on this matter, massive irrigation for Indonesian forests, tougher laws on forest utilization, protecting forests by converting them into national parks etc. can be implemented to ensure the safety of forests mainly in Indonesia, but also expendable to other Asean countries for longer-term planning.

I'm sure if Asean is willing to tackle this problem, together, a brighter and clearer tomorrow awaits us.