In the past few weeks, Singapore has been struck
by haze and to lift the mood of the gloomy days, a friend of mine even came out
with a joke: “Do you know we just received free ice-cream? The brand is ‘HAZE-跟-DUST’
[HAZE-GEN-DUST, ‘跟’ means ‘and’]”…
We burst out in laughter but it was not long before we had to stop. The
laughing made us breathe in more of the polluted air and we started to feel the
choking sensation. Nevertheless, this matter is not one that we can laugh it
off and treat it as a joke. The country started
to feel the effect of the haze with some people falling ill and others have
their major outdoor activities cancelled. During the period, the Pollutant
Standards Index (PSI) went up to a 3-hr PSI of 249, at 2100hrs on 14th
of September 2015 (Channel News Asia, 2015), which is within the very unhealthy
air quality category. The PSI value and the air quality description are as seen
below:
So how bad was it at the source? In Pekanbaru of
Indonesia Sumatra island, it even went up to PSI of 984 (The Straits Times,
2015). Can you imagine that PSI at 900+???? How do you even live there! The haze actually contains many harmful
substances to the body, examples like carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone,
nitrogen dioxide and particulates… In the case of PM2.5, it refers
to particulate that are of size smaller than 2.5 microns. How small is it? It
can enter the alveolar space of the lung and get stuck in there and also possible
to cause inflammation in the lung tissue.
The fire were set, as a form of slash and burn
practice, to clear land mainly for agricultural use. This method allow the rapid
discharge of nitrogen that can be used as fertiliser for the crop and also at
the same time burning and killing any pest or weeds that is present on the plot
of land (Quah, 2002). However, this practice creates much more negative impacts,
like haze, biodiversity loss, health problems, other economic loss (eg. in
tourism) and expenditure to counter the wild fire, that affect not only the
locals but also regional countries. Therefore, the local authorities should put
in effort and do something about it to stop the irresponsible arson which causes
extremely large area of lands to be burn down uncontrollably. On our part, we should
condemn these actions, which are irresponsibly carried out by individuals or
organisations, and on the other hand, support those that adopt the strategies
of sustainable development and also care about the environment.
References
Channel News Asia, 2015. Singapore reiterates
offer of assistance to Indonesia to fight forest fires
[Online]. Available from: http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/thousands-flee-pekanbaru-as-haze-hits-record-high.[Accessed 20 September 2015]
NEA, 2015. PSI
[Online]. Available from: http://www.haze.gov.sg/haze-updates. [Accessed
20 September 2015]
Quah, 2002. Transboundary Pollution in Southeast Asia: The Indonesian Fires. World Development [online], March 2002, 30(3): 429-441. Available from: doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(01)00122-X. [Accessed 20 September 2015]
Reuters. 2015. Indonesia expects to control haze from forest fires within 30 days [Online]. Available from: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/09/18/indonesia-haze-idINKCN0RI13W20150918.
[Accessed 20 September 2015]
The Straits Times, 2015. Thousands flee Pekanbaru as haze
hits record high [Online]. Available from: http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/thousands-flee-pekanbaru-as-haze-hits-record-high.
[Accessed 20 September 2015]