With Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) skyrocketing to unhealthy levels across the island, don’t expect it to go away anytime soon — especially when the Indonesian government has outrightly refused Singapore’s offer to assist in fighting the forest fires.
The Jakarta Post reports that Singapore’s Environment and Water Resources minister Vivian Balakrishnan was denied a meeting with Indonesian Environment and Forest Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar over the issue.
According to Siti, their government is well-equipped to handle the situation by themselves, thank you very much.
“According to available information, Singapore will send one or two aircraft with the water bombing capacity of around 5,000 litres. What we use [at the moment] already have capacities of between 3,000 and 5,000 litres, plus we rent Air Tractors from Australia. So I think [the assistance from Singapore] is not yet needed because our fleet is already numerous,” she says. “But we thank them for the offer”.
Repeated calls by Singapore for stricter enforcement, identification of those responsible and more transparency on the exact companies behind the burning plantations have largely been ignored, with Indonesian officials stating that it’s all classified information.
Even with assurance that the Indonesian government is on the case, forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan have yet to be quashed. As it already stands, the current 24-hour PSI in Singapore is well into the unhealthy range at 123-146, and it’s bound to get worse in the upcoming week ahead.
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