Singapore gets the jitters from spikes in Sumatra hotspots

252 hotspots recorded yesterday.

According to a release, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Environment Agency, Mr Ronnie Tay, has today written to one of his counterparts, Indonesian Deputy Minister for Environmental Degradation Control & Climate Change, Mr Arief Yuwono, to register Singapore’s concerns over the sudden spike in hotspot counts in Sumatra and to extend Singapore’s support and assistance to Indonesia’s efforts to prevent the haze situation from recurring.

Mr Tay also made a call to Indonesian Deputy Minister for Environment and Social Vulnerability, Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare, Mr Willem Rampangilei, to convey the same points.

Based on NOAA18 satellite data, there has been a marked increase in the number of hotspots in Sumatra in the last two days, with 261 and 252 hotspot counts on 21 and 22 July 2013 respectively.

In his letter and call, Mr Ronnie Tay, expressed Singapore’s concerns that the region will once again be shrouded by smoke haze if the hotspots in Sumatra continue to remain high.

He sought an urgent update of Indonesia's efforts to tackle the fires there and urged Indonesia to take immediate action. Mr Tay reiterated Singapore’s offer to provide support in the early detection of hotspots and suppression of fires, as well as to renew our standing offer of an aircraft to assist in cloud seeding operations.

Deputy Minister Rampangilei shared that there has been new sporadic burning. He assured Mr Tay that the Indonesian government is monitoring the situation and taking various actions on the ground to suppress the fires, such as cloud seeding and water bombing efforts.

He added that law enforcement and socialisation efforts on the ground have been strengthened, and the deployment of additional police and troops to the Riau area will be considered urgently in a high level inter-agency meeting.

NEA will continue to monitor the situation and work closely with our Indonesian counterparts on the transboundary haze issue. In addition, NEA has also advised the interim ASEAN Coordinating Centre through the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre that Alert Level 3 for Sumatra has been activated.

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