{News} 080807 Winds To Bring Haze To Brunei: Met Dept

Winds To Bring Haze To Brunei: Met Dept

Borneo Bulletin, 7 Aug 2008, By Azaraimy HH
Bandar Seri Begawan - The current slight haze over Brunei Darussalam is expected to gradually worsen due to the increase in hot spots in neighbouring countries and the prevailing dry season over these areas, Brunei's Meteorological Services said yesterday.


The number of forest fires on Indonesian Borneo has nearly doubled due to land clearing.
"Our latest data shows that the number of hot spots on Kalimantan Island has nearly doubled," Israr Albar, a forestry ministry official monitoring the forest fires via satellite, told AFP.
He said that some 217 hot spots recorded on Borneo were from land clearing in West Kalimantan province, compared with 122 recorded a day earlier.


The number of hot spots on Sumatra Island had decreased slightly to 423 from 557, he added.
The Duty Forecaster at the Department of Civil Aviation in Brunei told the Bulletin, "The strengthening of southwesterly winds into the country will also aid in transporting the smoke-haze from the areas into Brunei."

She said the severity of the haze, however, is yet determined as it would depend upon the severity of the dry season and consequent hot spots.
The Brunei Meteorological Services will continue its surveillance on the haze condition and appropriate actions will be taken to inform relevant government agencies and the public as and when the situation warrants.


Meanwhile, the regional haze map from the National Environment Agency, Singapore on August 5 indicated that hotspot activities continue to increase with most of the haze detected in West Kalimantan and Sarawak.
Meanwhile, all applications to conduct open burning in Sarawak have been frozen effective yesterday as a step to reduce the impact of haze, the state Assistant Minister of Environment Dr Abang Abdul Rauf Abang Zen said.


He said the state's Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) had issued the order after the Fire Weather Index (FWI) reached level 7 in the central region of the state, as well as in Sri Aman in the southern part of the state.
The FWI is a numerical rating of fire intensity derived from weather parameters such as temperature, rainfall, wind speed and relative humidity.


Under this rating, an FWI of 1 and below is considered as low fire hazard, 2 to 6 (moderate fire hazard), 7 to 13 (high fire hazard) and above 13 (extremely high fire hazard).
Dr Rauf said anyone who breached the NREB order is liable to a fine of up to RM30,000 and three years' imprisonment upon conviction.
He said the board had also detected a total of 51 hotspots in the state's central region as of 6pm yesterday.

Source: http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Archive/Aug08/070808/nite01.htm

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