Singapore haze, Singapore's pollution standards index (PSI) tipped the scales at 401 at noon on Friday, the highest ever recorded, as the government warned that the lingering haze could last for weeks.
The National Environment
Agency warned the elderly, pregnant women, children and those with heart
and lung conditions to remain indoors as the index hit an historic
high. An index reading above 300 is defined as "hazardous" and is
regarded as potentially life threatening to the ill and elderly.
Meanwhile, Singapore's
Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong warned residents angry about the smoke
wafting in from Indonesia that they may have to learn to live with it,
for now.
"We can't tell how this
problem is going to develop because it depends on the burning, it
depends on the weather, it depends on the wind," he told a press
conference on Thursday.
"It can easily last for
several weeks and quite possibly it could last longer until the dry
season ends in Sumatra which may be September or October."
The Straits Times reported
that queues had formed outside pharmacies across the island on Friday
morning and that many had sold out of the particulate-filtering N95
respiratory masks within minutes.
While schools remained
closed in Singapore for the summer break, more than 300 were shut
temporarily in nearby Malaysia due to the haze. Many office workers in
the city-state, meanwhile, struggled to get to work through the
haze-shrouded central business district.
"It looks like footage
of London smog in the 1950s, except that it smells like a day-old
hearth," a British expat energy sector analyst, who did not want to be
named, told CNN.
Singapore's Minister for
the Environment, Vivian Balakrishnan, flew to Jakarta on Thursday
evening to meet with his Indonesian counterparts in a bid to coordinate a
response to the smoke problem. The haze, caused by seasonal burn off in
Sumatra, has strained relations between the two countries which
normally share friendly ties.
"Singapore should not be
behaving like a child and making all this noise," senior Indonesian
minister Agung Laksono told a press conference on Thursday. "It's not
what Indonesians want, it's nature."
Singapore -- which
prides itself on its good air quality and green credentials - -- has
blamed Indonesian commercial interests for causing the smoke problem.
"Singaporeans have lost
patience, and are understandably angry, distressed and concerned,"
Balakrishnan said on his Facebook page. "No country or corporation has
the right to pollute the air at the expense of Singaporeans' health and
wellbeing."
Jakarta, meanwhile, has
pointed the finger at Singaporean palm oil ventures which it says have
caused the smog by clearing land to make way for plantations that
provide the feedstock for city-state's refining industry.
"The slash-and-burn
technique being used is the cheapest land-clearing method and it is not
only used by local farmers, but also employees of palm oil investors
including Singaporean and Malaysian companies,'' Hadi Daryanto, a senior
official at Indonesia's Forestry Ministry, told Indonesian media.
"We hope the governments
of Malaysia and Singapore will tell their investors to adopt proper
measures so we can solve this problem together.''
Three Singapore-based
palm oil companies with land concessions in Indonesia, including Wilmar
International Ltd, Golden Agri-Resources Ltd and First Resources Ltd,
said this week they had "zero burning" policies and used only mechanical
means to clear land.
Singapore's Prime
Minister Lee said the city-state had provided satellite data to
Indonesia to help identify who was responsible for the fires.
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