PETALING JAYA: Asean must stop treating transboundary haze as an annual ritual and take stronger action to prevent the recurring crisis, says Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye (pic).
The Alliance for a Safe Community chairman said that more than two decades after the signing of the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, the region was still trapped in the same cycle of fires, deteriorating air quality, health concerns and economic disruption.
“The recurring transboundary haze crisis in South-East Asia is no longer something Asean can afford to treat as a seasonal inconvenience.
“It is a serious regional environmental, public health and economic problem, and the time has come for Asean to acknowledge that its collective response has not been effective enough,” he said in a statement yesterday.
The Asean agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur on June 10, 2002, and came into force in 2003.
Lee said Asean had more than 20 years to learn from the haze problem and had produced agreements, action plans, committees, meetings and declarations.
“What we now need is results.”
He urged Asean leaders to convene an urgent high-level review of the agreement and establish a stronger, time-bound and enforceable regional action plan before the situation deteriorated further.
Lee said the continuing haze problem showed that Asean must move beyond declarations and reactive measures.
He suggested that Asean countries establish joint prevention and early-warning systems before the dry season instead of waiting until air quality reaches dangerous levels.
“The current climate forecasts gave us advanced warning. We must use that warning to act,” he said.
