ASEAN COLLABORATION HAS REDUCED HAZE IMPACT, SAYS MINISTER

MIRI (Malaysia), May 16 (Bernama) -- The collaboration among Asean countries
has resulted in a greatly reduced impact of transboundary haze over the last few
years, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas
said Monday.

He said member countries' compliance to the agreement on transboundary haze
pollution, signed in 2002, and the regular meetings of Asean ministerial
steering committee on haze, had contributed to a better understanding to address
the issue.

"I have been in this ministry for three years. You notice that we have been
lucky that we didn't experience what we had experienced in 1997 to 1998, which
was a very bad haze," he told reporters here after attending the Miri Division
disaster relief management committee here.

He said the collaborations that began with the sharing of strategies to
combat illegal burning activities had also been enhanced to include joint
efforts in installation of weather and air monitoring systems.

To date, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore are spearheading the efforts to
install air monitoring stations in the Riau and Jambi provinces in Indonesia.

"We are looking forward to having more areas of collaborations (in the
future)," he said, adding that Brunei had already indicated an interests to be
involved in the collaboration.

Meanwhile, Uggah said the a sum of RM1 million (US$1=RM3.03) had been spent
to build five
tube wells as a measure to maintain the water level in peat soil areas in Miri.

He said peat soil had been known to be highly combustible in dry conditions
and the risks were apparent especially in the current dry weather.

In addition, he said 13 check dams were also constructed at a cost of
between RM5,000 and RM10,000 each as another measure to maintain the water level
in peat soil areas as well as to provide water source for combating peat fire.

A watch tower had also been completed at a cost of under RM400,000 to be
used for monitoring peat soil areas, he added.