With the annual or ‘customary’ trans-boundary haze this time around expected to persist right into the first quarter of 2016 not least due to the El Nino phenomenon, Malaysia will be suffering what could be the worst ever natural and environmental adversity in living memory.

Time and again, Malaysians have to put up with the blanketing of our skies with smoky matter resembling some apocalyptic scenario. And yet no sustainable and practicable solutions that offer lasting resolutions to the haze problem seem to be in sight. And of course, haze destroys the land, water and air environment even if ever so ‘temporarily’ and as a ‘means’ rather than ‘goal.’

Haze - or as some would insist to call it as ‘smog’ - mainly contains carbon monoxide and particulate matter (especially polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon/ PAH). The former can be a respiratory irritant and like the latter are (highly potentially) carcinogenic (i.e. cancer causing) and thus pose a health hazard/ risk to the general public.

Even schools are affected and it is unacceptable for young students to be sitting for their UPSR under such discomfort and unhealthy condition. “Furthermore, health problems in turn have an impact on the economy and socio-economic conditions of the country through lower productivity and higher costs” according to Dr Wong Ruen Yuan, president of Malaysia Green Blue Environmental Protection Association.

This can be seen in the impact on the agricultural sector where the prices of vegetables have gone up by as much as 50 percent whereas production had dropped by 10 to 20 percent. This is because of the lack of sunlight and rain - leading to reduced photosynthesis and nutrients – that slows the process of growth of vegetable production. Even livestock are not spared such as broiler and breeding chickens.

The situation is especially acute in the north-east region where an estimated two to three million chicken a month have been dying because of respiratory problems due to the haze. This means less eggs and chicken meat available for distribution in the market. Though the figure is only some 6 percent of the total number of chickens nationwide, it could go up to 10 percent if the haze situation worsened or prolonged.

The effect on the consumer is higher prices when the real rate of inflation at least twice that of the official figure (at 3 percent).

Surely these are testing times for Malaysians who, in addition to the haze, have had to also endure political and economic crises that impose additional burden and hardship in particular for families struggling to cope with less disposable income due to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) (at 6 percent).

On the other hand, the impact on our commodities industry - in plantations where the haze is located especially in Kalimantan - could well be positive in terms of outcome. Fire that spreads from virgin lands over into neighbouring plantations, of course, may have destroyed the oil palm crops there but the result is higher prices on the market on the expectation of shortage of supply.

This combined with poor visibility mean supply chain disruptions.

Need to have political will

Much more could be said of the impact of the haze but what is critical is the need to have the political will and technical capacity to do more in tackling the haze menace.

Viable solutions would of course require the participation of all the stakeholders.

Nonetheless it cannot be emphasised too strongly enough that the government must show the way and take the lead. The root course of the haze is burning of peat lands for cultivation. During drought seasons, peat soil becomes flammable and thus fire can spread easily. For smallholders and individual farmers, the burning is mainly for food crops. If companies were truly involved, then it would be for commodity crops.

‘Slash-and-burn’ is utilised as being the cheapest or low-cost practice. Much of the burning, therefore, stems from areas which have high concentrations of peat in the soil.

Since there seems to be a lack of proper political will on the part of the Indonesian authorities to clamp down on the ‘slash-and-burn’ practice by the smallholders, it is incumbent on them to take concrete and pragmatic steps to contain and control the spread of the fire and thus minimise the extent of the trans-boundary haze or even prevent its outbreak in the first place.

This can be done by making it mandatory for the installation of tube wells to pump ground-water or aquifer water into the existing trenches, ditches, moats and canals constructed by the plantations companies for the estates. Ground-water and aquifer water exist below peat soil and peat swamps.

Two companies in Kalimantan have successfully tapped underground water in Kalimantan on Oct 1, 2015. The (unconfined) aquifer water was situated at 9-10 metres below surface. The cost for the tube-wells is only US$350.00 per piece, and hence is a very cost effective method for the plantation companies to do their part.

“The watered artificially-created grooves then would act as a fire barrier or breaker thus preventing the fire from spreading” according to Jaron Keng, secretary of Malaysia Green Blue Environmental Protection Association.

As part of the regulatory and legal framework, the practice could be made compulsory under a new piece of legislation in Indonesia and Malaysia (for our companies operating across the border in Kalimantan and for those with plantations in Sumatra and the Riau islands). The Regional Haze Action Plan (RHAP) should also incorporate it into their future commitments.

Next, the three countries affected, i.e. including Singapore should set up a dedicated haze monitoring centre perhaps to be based at one of the coastal towns in the western side of Kalimantan such as Pontianak which is situated within the broad radius of the haze movement. Such a centre would utilise global positioning satellite (GPS) as part of an early warning system to indicate potential hotspots so that preventative and early remedial measures can be taken.

To assist the centre, the governments of the three countries should consider also employing drones to survey and provide surveillance of the historic and potential areas for forest fire.

There is not much time to get our act together. For far too long, the peoples of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have suffered the haze and its impact. Let a new dawn arrive in closer regional cooperation. If regional integration means anything, tackling the haze is a

responsibility that belongs to all the three countries.

JARON KENG is secretary of the Green and Blue Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia.