Transboundary haze issue will be tackled govt-to-govt

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will have government-to-government cooperation with Indonesia for a more effective way to tackle transboundary haze, instead of just working with provincial authorities, said Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister said this cooperation was in line with the Asean Transboundary Haze Pollution Agreement signed in 2002.

He said that during the Asean steering committee on transboundary haze pollution meeting in Singapore last week, Indonesia said that it “would not pursue the idea of Malaysia signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its provincial government.”

Malaysia had planned to sign an MoU with Sumatra on transboundary haze this year.

“Indonesia pointed out that the province alone cannot tackle the issue and help is needed from the government. That is why Indonesia feels that whatever instrument that we want to use to tackle haze must be done government-to-government, instead of with provincial authorities.

“They made a logical point there because when we wanted to provide assistance to help put out forest and peat fires, we discussed with the (Indonesian) President and my counterpart first,” he told reporters after attending the Cabinet meeting yesterday.

Environmental authorities and experts from Malaysia and Indonesia will jointly work on the framework of the co-operation, to be presented at the Asean Environment Ministers’ meeting later this year.

On another matter, the minister said the La Nina phenomenon may soften the impact of the haze expected to envelope the country from next month when it is hot and dry in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

This usually triggered forest and peat fires, and the wind blew the smoke towards Malaysia, causing haze, he said.

“But with La Nina expected to occur around the same time, we hope it can help clear the smog so that the condition will not be so adverse,” he added.

While La Nina may offer some respite, it can also cause a different type of problem – floods.

“We saw the effect of La Nina in 2014, when the water levels rose in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang,” said Wan Junaidi.

He added the relevant agencies and authorities were making the necessary preparations to deal with any eventuality.

La Nina is expected to bring rainfall to most parts of the country from July to September.

Wan Junaidi also said Indonesia has assured that the massive fires of last year, which resulted in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei experiencing adverse haze condition, would not recur this year.

Haze has become an almost annual problem for Malaysia, due to forest and peat fires in Indonesia.

The problem worsened last year with the Air Pollution Index (API) breaching the hazardous level in several states.

The situation posed problems not only for the Malaysia’s aviation and maritime sectors, it also caused schools in Sarawak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Kelantan, and the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya to be temporarily closed.

Major outdoor events were cancelled due to the poor air quality.