SINGAPORE:
An ASEAN-wide early warning system on
potential hotspots may be in the works. This comes at the end of a meeting by
the ministerial steering committee on transboundary haze held in Brunei, which
agreed to propose the development of an ASEAN-wide Fire Danger Rating Systems
(FDRS), to the region's leaders.
The
system, which is currently deployed in Indonesia and Malaysia, provides early
warning on potential fire occurrences. This enables countries to prepare and
take preventive actions during dry weather periods.
Singapore's
Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who was at the
meeting, said: "I hope we are on the verge or the threshold to launch a
ASEAN-wide FDRS, based on real-time data from all the countries, integrated,
analysed and presented in a way that will be accessible to everyone.
"So
we have asked the ASEAN Secretary to work with the countries to consider
putting this up to the ASEAN leaders. This is something which has been done for
some time now. Malaysia has been taking the lead. It requires all the countries
to install the automated weather system as well as to supply the necessary
on-the-ground data, things like where your peatlands are, where your forests
cover.
"The
important thing is (that the FDRS) allows you to make a predictive model to
access which areas are at risk... At the moment, the main countries involved
are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand."
The
ministers noted that drier weather is expected between June and mid-October, so
member states have agreed to remain vigilant and step up efforts to minimise
the effects of any transboundary haze.
The
various ASEAN countries are also monitoring the regional hotspots and weather
outlook, as Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei have extended their help to
Indonesia to combat the problem.
-CNA/ac
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