90 Hotspots Found Throughout Indonesia But NEA Says It’s Unlikely For SG To Get Haze

By
Jia Hui
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To many, Singapore have only one season : Summer.

But if you’ve lived in Singapore long enough, or have been here for the most of the past few years, you would realise that we have other ‘seasons’ as well.

Blazing-hot season, rainy-and-cold season with occasional hail and flood, and also the haze season.

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And unlike the four seasons that other countries have, none of these seasons are pin-point predictable on a daily basis.

Which kinda suck.

Imagine planning to go to the beach and getting hit by hail instead.

Bummer.

Image:Giphy

Today, we’re going to talk about the haze season, which experts have already began to warn about recently.

Just yesterday (Feb 21), Channel NewsAsia reported that our neighbour Indonesia have declared disaster alerts in four provinces.

Since the start of the dry season, forest and land fires have been on the rise.

Image: CNA

The four provinces are South Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan – all of which have experienced forest fires in the past few years.

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Image:xinhuanet.com

The country’s disaster management agency said that the alerts were declared by the governors due to the number of hotspots and also upon the agency’s advice.

“With the disaster alert status, the provinces will have easier access in terms of personal, logistics, funding and support from the central government to tackle forest fires,” a National Disaster Management Authority spokesman said.

As of 7am yesterday (Feb 21), there have been a total of 90 hotspots throughout Indonesia, with most of them appearing in West Kalimantan.

About the haze

Indonesian provinces located near the equator are now experiencing the dry season, which usually last from beginning of the year to early March.

They will then experience the rainy season from March till May.

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Image: Far Flung Places

From June to September they will undergo an “intense dry season”.

In early February, Indonesian President Joko Widodo promised the Prime Ministers of Singapore and Malaysia that 2018 would be a haze-free year.

He also hope that authorities can do their best in controlling the fires.

Indonesia is set to host the Asian Games, which may be affected if the fires persist.

Image: Canon Global

NEA thinks it’s unlikely

According to The Straits Times, National Environment Agency (NEA) said that “the likelihood is low” for us to be affected by the haze.

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“For this week and the next, the prevailing winds over the region are expected to continue to blow from the north-west or north-east,” said NEA.

Image: The Straits Times

“The dry weather conditions are expected to gradually ease, and an increase of shower activities will help to subdue the hotspots in Sumatra and Kalimantan,” NEA added.

Thoughts

Personally, I always believe that we should never be too confident in anything.

Sure, the NEA is the expert in this, but nobody foresaw strong winds sending boats flying or tiles popping right?

So whether the likelihood is low or high, we should always be prepared for a similar situation like ‘haze 2013’ and ‘haze 2015’.

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Speaking of which, I still have some N95 at home.

Anybody want?

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

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Featured Image: The Straits Times

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Jia Hui
Email: [email protected]