SINGAPORE, Oct 14 — Pollution readings in Singapore reached their highest level this year today while Timor-Leste shut its schools for three days in response to intensifying smoke and haze from Indonesia’s wildfires.
Singapore’s one-hour PM2.5 reading hit a high of 284mcg/m3 in the western part of the island, entering the National Environmental Agency’s “very high” band for the first time during the current haze period.
The Timor-Leste government said in a statement that it is suspending in-person learning activities for three days starting tomorrow “due to contamination by pollutant particles from wildfires in neighbouring regions or countries”.
Timor-Leste did not identify Indonesia by name, but it shares an island with a part of Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province, where a number of hotspots have been reported.
Indonesia has been battling its most intense wildfire season in 11 years, fuelled by El Niño-related dry weather conditions. The haze has caused a spike in respiratory illnesses at home and a dramatic decline in air quality across the region, with several states in Malaysia also forced to shut schools.
In October 2015, Indonesian wildfires brought PM2.5 levels in the west of Singapore up to a national record of 471mcg/m3.
‘Treat them like an outcast’
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has ordered additional resources to be deployed to combat the wildfires.
“We are mobilising all our resources and capabilities,” said Honi Havana, an official at the Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, during a press briefing today.
He said Jakarta has deployed more than 69,000 firefighters, up from around 44,000 in mid-September, and is testing new methods to put out fires more effectively using special chemicals.
Authorities have been struggling with peatland fires, which smoulder slowly beneath the surface and can re-ignite at any time, said disaster mitigation agency spokesperson Berton Panjaitan.
“We must recognise that the only way to resolve this is through sustained rainfall,” he said.
As Southeast Asian foreign ministers prepare to discuss the issue of transboundary haze at an ASEAN meeting next month, criticism of Indonesia has continued to mount across the region.
Yesterday, Malaysia’s Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman called on Southeast Asian nations to lodge a diplomatic protest against Jakarta for failing to do enough to control the fires.
“We must send a strong diplomatic note that Malaysia objects, and that not only Malaysia objects, it must be agreed upon by other ASEAN countries that are similarly affected, such as Singapore. We must send a very clear diplomatic protest,” he told Parliament.
“You need to treat them like an outcast in the region,” he said, adding that Malaysian and Singaporean banks should cut off financing to companies linked to land burning.
