KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asia is bracing for widespread haze and air pollution concerns, Malaysia's environment department told reporters on Saturday. The fears come only a week after Malaysia was hit hard by poor air quality caused by the haze over the Peninsula. Asean countries said they are to seek an urgent regional solution to the transboundary haze this year in view of the anticipated dry season that will last up to three months starting July. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas said he had meet his counterparts from Singapore and Brunei while attending the Rio Earth Summit in Brazil this month to discuss the possibility of holding the regional meeting on the haze problem before September as originally scheduled. “Three of us agreed to meet earlier than the scheduled meeting in September,” he told reporters after chairing a meeting on the haze situation in Miri on Saturday. Asean's 14th Meeting of the Technical Working Group on Transboundary Haze Pollution and the 14th Meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution are scheduled for September in Bali, Indonesia. “We would like to bring it forward a lot earlier, so that we can review each other's strategies. The problem will get worse because the weather will be drier in August and September,” he said. The department classifies API readings of between 0 and 50 as “good," 51 to 100 as “moderate," 101 to 200 as “unhealthy," 201 to 300 as “very unhealthy" and more than 300 as “hazardous." The haze has been a major problem facing Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries in recent years. The main culprit of this haze is the slash and burn practice by farmers and peat fires in Indonesia, experts say. But also in Malaysia, the government is not doing enough to reform farming practices, which Yussif Hassan, an environmental consultant in Selangor told Bikyamasr.com, “is a major issue that is seeing haze become more prominent in recent times." He argued that “the Malaysia government must work to end the practices that throw debris and dust into the air, because if we don't do this soon, it will debilitate the environment and people's health." The first major crisis to hit the country was in 2005 in Port Klang, where the Air Pollution Index rose to above 500, a devastating and extremely dangerous level. Both Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta are, however, working together on new policies to end the problem, but Hassan says movement is too slow. “They need to move faster if this is to be solved, because although the recent problem was not terribly dangerous, it has the potential if nothing is done," he added. Malaysia and Indonesia, together with other members of the ASEAN community, signed the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 as a result of a 1997 haze. However, Indonesia is the only country that has not ratified the agreement. A repeat incident in 2005 and 2006 has forced Malaysia and Singapore to pressure Indonesia to ratify it According to the Department of Environment's Air Pollutant Index (API), the Selangor area has seen the worst of the haze leave the area, heading north to Perak, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan. “We are watching the situation closely and will be issuing warnings and advice to citizens in affected areas," a department statement to Bikyamasr.com said. In the affected areas, the API is above 100, but still remains below 150. The government hopes the haze will leave the country in the near future, but experts and the department have no timetable expected for its departure. It was previously reported that the haze originated from peat and forest fires in Riau, the central Sumatran district of Indonesia, with the south-westerly wind blowing it across the Straits of Malacca. The Health Department issued an advisory late on Friday for affected members of the public to reduce their outdoor activities. “Be indoors all the time. If you have to be outside, do wear the right masks," the department said in a statement.
