Resolving haze issue will need more work

THE recent adoption of a joint haze monitoring system by five South-east Asian countries has sent a signal that there is political will to work together to combat the annual smog problem in the region. But achieving an effective practical solution will need more work.

The new system will allow the countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Thailand - to track down those responsible for causing the haze and take the necessary action against the culprits. At the Asean Summit in Brunei last week, the leaders of these nations openly committed to share important satellite data to help them locate fires and determine when they are occurring on land owned by plantation companies.

While environmentalists cheered the formal adoption of such information-sharing, many are of the view that better monitoring of the haze may not result in better enforcement. For example, the Washington-based World Resources Institute said in a recent report that the responsibility for the fires could be assessed only with thorough, impartial investigations on the ground and more maps of land and plantation concessions.