A DENSE, acrid cloud of white smoke has enveloped Singapore, bringing much of the city-state to a standstill. This is “haze”, blowing in from hundreds of fires raging on the nearby Indonesian island of Sumatra. Something like it comes almost every year, at about this time, as farmers and landowners slash-and-burn to clear their fields. Normally the effect is not too bad—this week, however, has been the all-time worst. The “Red Dot”, as Singaporeans like to call their tiny, prosperous country, has become a greyish white dot.

Since the hazing began on June 17th, day by day all the previous records for air pollution have been smashed. Singaporeans are now glued to the hourly updates of the Pollutants Standards Index (PSI), a measure of how bad the air quality is; 101-200 is considered “unhealthy”; 201-300 “very unhealthy”; and over 300 “hazardous”. On June 19th the PSI hit a new peak of 321, while the next day it climbed to 371. As I write this, in the early afternoon of June 21st, I learn that the PSI peaked at 401 at midday but has now fallen back a little.

The previous record was set in 1997, when the PSI reached a then panic-inducing 226. The current numbers are thus of a different order, and it certainly smells (and looks) it. It’s like standing next to a giant bonfire all day long and inhaling deeply. The prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, warned yesterday that due to the lack of rain and the prevailing wind conditions the haze is not due to go away anytime soon.



Indeed, the haze is casting a shadow of its own over the two countries’ normally amicable relations. Tempers are fraying on both sides of the Straits of Malacca. One Singaporean minister said on June 20th that his countrymen “have lost patience and are understandably distressed and concerned.” Astonishingly, on the same day the Indonesian minister in charge of his country’s response to the crisis, Agung Laksono, told reporters that Singaporeans were “behaving like children, in such a tizzy”. His widely quoted remarks certainly didn’t go down well in Singapore. Singaporeans are also baffled as to why Indonesia has not yet ratified a regional agreement on trans-boundary haze pollution. Mr Laksono could provide no clear answer.  

Meanwhile Greenpeace, an environmental watchdog, has been using satellite and other images to identify the 1,000 or so “hot spots” in Sumatra where the fires are coming from, so as to identify the landowners responsible for the blazes (in many cases they operate oil-palm or rubber plantations). Many of these hot spots should have been covered by a law that was passed in 2010 to prevent forestry clearance, but plainly this is being ignored. The Indonesians are making half an effort to shift the blame, saying that some of the transgressors might be Singaporean or Malaysian companies.

Indonesia has promised to do cloud-seeding, to induce rain, but nobody in Singapore is placing much hope in that. For now, then, it’s back to the air-conditioned living room.

(Picture credit: AFP)