Indonesia pledges anti-haze steps

> Tremendous efforts last year by Jakarta against open burning reassuring, says minister

KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesia has assured other Asean countries, including Malaysia, that it would take steps to prevent haze from occurring this year, said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (pix).

“I am very confident following assurances from our Indonesian counterparts on their tremendous efforts in 2016.

“By 2020, we will, hopefully, be able to achieve zero-haze status,” he said after chairing the 19th meeting of the Asean sub-regional ministerial steering committee on transboundary haze pollution yesterday.

Also present were Brunei’s Minister of Development Datuk Bahrin Abdullah, Singapore’s Minister of Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli Masagos Abdullah, Indonesia’s adviser to the Minister of Environment and Forestry Arief Yuwono, Thailand’s permanent secretary for the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry Wijarn Simachaya and Asean secretarygeneral Le Luong Minh. Wan Junaidi said the assurance from the Indonesian government was evident last year when they deployed police, army and local authorities to conduct enforcement against those responsible for open burning in the country.

“As a result, they were able to reduce the impact of the haze significantly. According to scientific data, Malaysia and Singapore had only suffered from haze for between two and three days due to their efforts,” he said.

Wan Junaidi said although it is unlikely to happen, if the haze does make a comeback, the government will deploy assets to assist Indonesian authorities to stop the fires.

“The matter was agreed to by the prime minister himself,” he said.

“We will deploy our Bombardier aircraft to assist in extinguishing peat fires that cause the haze.”

Malaysia is expected to be free of haze this year as the current hot and dry spell is not as severe as the one we experienced this time last year.

“The Meteorological Department has briefed me on the weather forecast up to April next year.

“Dry weather is expected in August and September, and then the rainy season will begin in October,” he added.