Operation Haze is the biggest cross-border firefighting mission in history that involved teams of Malaysian firefighters going across to Indonesia to assist with putting out major fires that were causing severe haze across Southeast Asia.
| Southeast Asian haze series |
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The haze first became a considerable disruption to daily life in Malaysia in April 1983. The cause of the haze is uncertain, which has led to speculation that suspended ash particulates from volcanic eruptions, suspended smoke particulates from large-scale forest fires, open agricultural burning in neighbouring countries, as well as local agricultural burning had caused the haze. [1] The disruption happened again in August 1990, from June to October 1991, and has recurred every year since 1992, plaguing the months of August, September, and October. The effects of the haze reached their zenith in 1997 when the cause of the haze was confirmed to be forest and plantation fires in Southern Sumatra, Kalimantan, and some other islands of Indonesia as the sky remained dull with pollution from August until November of that year.
By September 1997, forest fires in Indonesia had been raging uncontrollably. The area where the fire took place was estimated to be the size of 4 million football pitches and was visible even from space. The Indonesian forest fires produced noxious yellow smoke clouds that smothered a vast region of South East Asia, reaching as far as northern Australia. The clouds caused the air quality disaster known as the 1997 South East Asian haze. Millions of people were forced to wear masks and hundreds of death were reported in Indonesia, as a direct or indirect result of a severe decline in air quality.
The impact of the haze caused the Air Pollution Index, which is used by Malaysia, to rises to alarmingly hazardous levels. In the Malaysian state of Sarawak, these API numbers hit record levels. In just six days, 10,000 people had sought treatment for haze related issues. In Malaysia, the Prime Minister was forced to declare a State of Emergency, closing schools, government offices and many shops all over the state, including constructions and industries, which ground to a halt. The total cost of the damage caused by the haze to Malaysia was estimated to be RM802 million or US$321 million, for the period between August to October 1997. The damage caused by the haze affected the GDP by an estimated 0.30 per cent. [2] The haze even affected the output of gas turbines at the Kuala Langat Power Plant (KLPP), Malaysia. It was hypothesized that gas turbine combustions during haze-free periods when oxygen levels were sufficient, could to achieve perfect or near perfect combustion. However, during the period when the haze occurred, the air contained less amount of oxygen, which affected the combustion, causing it to not perform optimally. [3]
The then Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir, searched desperately for a solution. [4] The head of the Malaysian fire and rescue department came up with a plan to send a team of Malaysian firefighters across to Indonesia.
Operation Haze became the biggest cross-border firefighting mission in history. Malaysian firefighters fought a desperate battle with the fires raging across Sumatra and Kalimantan over 25 days, and faced insurmountable obstacles. At the peak of massive forest and land fires, the numbers of hotspots reached 37,938, which occurred in August 1997. [5] Healthy-looking trees could fall upon them as it base burned out. Peat fires posed the worst risk as the firefighters could be dropped in fire pits as the fires burn deep underground.
There they encountered huge problems ranging from the lack of right equipment, no water source to fight the fires with, up to the problem of identifying the source of the fires deep in the peat land. Finally, after 25 days, they managed to battle the haze so that visibility to the sky was restored. Also, with the help of monsoon rains, the haze threat was finally over.
At the end of it all, a total of between 8 and 10 million hectares of forest was destroyed, an estimated 40,000 people sought hospital treatment and many deaths were reported, tourism was severely impacted, and an estimate of US$10 billion in losses were recorded across the region.
As part of steps taken to avoid the recurring of the Haze, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) approved the need for an early warning system in the Regional Haze Action Plan (RHAP) in 1998 to prevent forest fires and the resulting haze through improved management policies and enforcements, example via Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS) [6]
In addition, Malaysia and Indonesian come up with a Disaster Cooperation and Assistance which was signed by H.E. Datuk Seri Mohamed bin Rahmat, who is the National Disaster Management and Relief Committee Chairman as well as the Minister of Information, on behalf of the Malaysian Government and H.E. Dato’ Seri Utama ft. Azwar Anas, Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare and also chairman of the Indonesia National Disaster Management Coordinating Board (BAKORNAS-PB) on behalf of the Indonesian Government. [7]
Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a contraction (portmanteau) of the words smoke and fog to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then intended to refer to what was sometimes known as pea soup fog, a familiar and serious problem in London from the 19th century to the mid-20th century. This kind of visible air pollution is composed of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxide, ozone, smoke and other particulates. Man-made smog is derived from coal combustion emissions, vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, forest and agricultural fires and photochemical reactions of these emissions.
Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon in which dust, smoke, and other dry particulates obscure the clarity of the sky. The World Meteorological Organization manual of codes includes a classification of horizontal obscuration into categories of fog, ice fog, steam fog, mist, haze, smoke, volcanic ash, dust, sand, and snow. Sources for haze particles include farming, traffic, industry, and wildfires. Seen from afar and depending on the direction of view with respect to the Sun, haze may appear brownish or bluish, while mist tends to be bluish grey. Whereas haze often is thought of as a phenomenon of dry air, mist formation is a phenomenon of humid air. However, haze particles may act as condensation nuclei for the subsequent formation of mist droplets; such forms of haze are known as "wet haze."
The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution is a legally binding environmental agreement signed in 2002 by the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to reduce haze pollution in Southeast Asia. The Agreement recognises that transboundary haze pollution which result from land and/or forest fires should be mitigated through concerted national efforts and international co-operation.
Environmental issues in Indonesia are associated with the country's high population density and rapid industrialisation, and they are often given a lower priority due to high poverty levels, and an under-resourced governance.
The Borneo peat swamp forests ecoregion, within the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, are on the island of Borneo, which is divided between Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The 2006 Southeast Asian haze event was caused by continued uncontrolled burning from "slash and burn" cultivation in Indonesia, and affected several countries in the Southeast Asian region and beyond, such as Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand, and as far as Saipan; the effects of the haze may have spread to South Korea. Local sources of pollution partly contributed to the increased toxicity, particularly in high-pollution areas such as ports, oil refineries, and dense urban areas. In the highly urbanised and industrialised Klang Valley of Malaysia in particular, the surrounding terrain acted as a natural retainer of polluted air, aggravating the situation when the haze set in.
The 1997 Southeast Asian haze was an international air pollution disaster that occurred during the second half of 1997, its after-effects causing widespread atmospheric visibility and health problems within Southeast Asia. Considered the most severe Southeast Asian haze event of all time, the total costs of the 1997 haze are estimated at US$9 billion, due mainly to health care and disruption of air travel and business activities.
The Southeast Asian haze is a fire-related recurrent transboundary air pollution issue. Haze events, where air quality reaches hazardous levels due to high concentrations of airborne particulate matter from burning biomass, have caused adverse health, environmental and economic impacts in several countries in Southeast Asia. Caused primarily by slash-and-burn land clearing, the problem flares up every dry season to varying degrees and generally is worst between July and October and during El Niño events. Transboundary haze in Southeast Asia has been recorded since 1972 with the 1997 and 2015 events being particularly severe.
The 1997 group of forest fires in Indonesia that lasted well into 1998 were probably among the two or three, if not the largest, forest fires group in the last two centuries of recorded history.
The environment of Malaysia is the biotas and geologies that constitute the natural environment of Malaysia. Malaysia's ecology is megadiverse, with a biodiverse range of flora and fauna found in various ecoregions throughout the country. Tropical rainforests encompass between 59% to 70% of Malaysia's total land area, of which 11.6% is pristine. Malaysia has the world's fifth largest mangrove area, which totals over a half a million hectares.
Deforestation in Borneo has taken place on an industrial scale since the 1960s. Borneo, the third largest island in the world, divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, was once covered by dense tropical and subtropical rainforests.
Air pollution has been an ongoing problem in many countries in the Southeast Asia region, and Malaysia is one of the worst affected. Haze has been a major issue for the country, driven by slash and burn practices by farmers and peat fires blown by the wind from Indonesia.
The 2005 Malaysian haze was an air pollution crisis caused primarily by fires in neighbouring Indonesia. In August 2005, haze spread across Malaysia from forest fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, leading to air quality reaching hazardous levels in certain states and the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government declared states of emergency in affected regions, closed schools and held crisis talks with Indonesian officials. Farmers regularly burn scrub and forest to clear land during the dry season for agricultural purposes. The 2005 haze was at the time the worst to hit Malaysia since 1997.
The 2013 Southeast Asian haze was a haze crisis that affected several countries in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Thailand, mainly during June and July 2013. The haze period was caused by large-scale burning in many parts of Sumatra and Borneo. Satellite imagery from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites showed that the haze was mainly due to smoke from fires burning in Riau province, Indonesia.
Palm oil production is important to the economy of Indonesia as the country is the world's biggest producer and consumer of the commodity, providing about half of the world's supply. In 2016, Indonesia produced over 34.6 million metric tons of palm oil, and exported 25.1 million metric tons of it. Oil palm plantations stretch across 12 million hectares, and is projected to reach 13 million hectares by 2020. There are several different types of plantations, including small, privately owned plantations, and larger, state- owned plantations. There are a variety of health, environmental, and societal impacts that result from the production of palm oil in Indonesia. A recent publication by the ONG Rainforest Action Network (RAN) indicates that the use of palm oil by some of the biggest chocolate and snacks' producers is increasing this problem.
The 2015 Southeast Asian haze was an air pollution crisis affecting several countries in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.
The Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014 (THCP) is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that criminalizes conduct which causes or contributes to haze pollution in Singapore, and to provide for related matters such as deterrence. The law is designed specifically to allow legal in suing companies for environmental pollution.
The 2016 Southeast Asian haze was an air pollution crisis which affected several countries in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
The 2010 Southeast Asian haze was an air pollution crisis which affected many Southeast Asia countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore during the month of October in 2010.
A trans-national air pollution crisis affected several countries in Southeast Asia from February to September 2019, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.