The smoke is not likely to affect other
countries, however, as prevailing
winds are coming from the northeast
and therefore blowing the haze into
Indonesian territory, according to
Yong Pok Wing, deputy director
general of the Malaysian
Meteorological Service.
The head of Indonesia's weather
service Sri Diharto, who along with
Yong is in Bangkok to attend a
conference on ''El Nino Related
Crises in Asia'', confirmed that ''the
hot spots are starting up again''.
''We are watching the situation but
there is no money [to counteract it],''
he said. ''We are praying the current
hot spots don't send haze to other
countries again.''
The fires, some of which are burning
in underground peat deposits and
coal seams, have been re-kindled
following more than two months of
prolonged drought in Kalimantan,
Agence France-Presse reported
Tuesday, adding that visibility on
Monday had been reduced to less
than one kilometre.
The severe drought in Indonesia, and
throughout much of Southeast Asia,
is widely believed to be a result of the
strong El Nino event currently taking
place.
Malaysian meteorologists now
suspect that the large-scale haze
crisis which occurred last year may
have caused a reduction in rainfall in
parts of Malaysia, Yong added.
It is generally believed that a delay in
the onset of the rains caused by El
Nino exacerbated the haze
phenomenon, but Yong speculated
that the reverse might also be true --
the haze could have blocked
convective activity which causes rain
to fall -- forming a kind of vicious
circle.
Yong presented data which showed
that between July and October, when
the haze was at its strongest, rainfall
in many parts of Malaysia was well
below normal. In Malacca, for
instance, which is not usually
heavily-affected by El Nino,
precipitation over the four-month
period was roughly half of average
levels.
''The haze blocks solar radiation, so
there is less evaporation of ground
moisture to move up and form rain
clouds,'' Yong explained. ''It also
causes the atmosphere to heat up, so
that it isn't cool enough to condense
any moisture which has evaporated
into water.''
Malaysia's Minister of Information
Mohammed bin Rahmat, expressed
concern about the reports of renewed
fires in Kalimantan. ''The only thing
we can do is more cloud seeding,'' he
suggested.
Rahmat, who spoke at the
conference on the need for
cooperation in coping with disasters,
also defended the Malaysian
government's order last year which
forbade academics from speaking out
on the haze.
''It was not a question of trying to
suppress opinion. That was a critical
time, there were all kinds of
statements coming out and we had
spent a lot of money on trying to fight
the haze,'' he said. ''We never gagged
the press but we want people to be
responsible.''
''Some people would like to put the
blame on certain parties, but it was
not a question of who's responsible.
It's better to say, 'let's all be
responsible together','' Rahmat
explained.
''Both [Malaysia and Indonesia] have
learned a very bitter lesson from that
episode. We have to make sure the
laws against open burning are
enforced,'' he added. ''We have also
talked to the Malaysian companies
which were involved.''
Rahmat said that Malaysia and
Indonesia had agreed on a bilateral
memorandum of understanding to
handle all types of disasters. Even
better, he said, was a multilateral
plan devised by Asean to fight the
forest fires and haze pollution.
However, negotiations were still
continuing on how to fund the plan.