Cambodia Expats Online: Forum | News | Information | Blog

EDITORIAL: Asean sees some light through the haze
15 August 2016
By Editorial Desk,
The Nation (Thailand)

BANGKOK (The Nation/ANN) - The problem left unchallenged by the group for two decades has only worsened with neglect.
Despite repeated promises from the people in position to control it, haze is a problem that’s not going away. The smoke from the deliberately set fires poses an increasingly serious hazard across the region, yet the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has yet to mount a concerted effort to resolve the issue.

Until last week, all the bloc did was scatter blame, which only undermined chances of cooperation on a huge problem that has a debilitating effect on public health and international transportation. Now at least we have a “road map” for regional cooperation in the coming years, emerging from a ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur last week. But unfortunately the meeting’s focus was mainly on Indonesia, an unhelpful perspective of a region-wide problem. Indonesia is indeed the primary source of the smoke, but Thailand, Myanmar and Laos also contribute to the haze problem.
Full article : http://www.asianews.network/content/edi ... haze-25563

The "haze" is back across South East Asia. Air pollution is rising in Singapore as a result of Indonesian peat fires. The Indonesian authorities were supposed to be doing something about this :

ASEAN = loud dog with no bite

bolueeleh wrote:ASEAN = loud dog with no bite

Or maybe?

What haze? What problem ? What deaths ?
I didn't see any haze. Did you see any haze ? No, Indonesia, I didn't see any haze.

Nothing to see here: Southeast Asia dismiss haze death study
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 21 September, 2016, 8:50pm
Associated Press

Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean authorities have dismissed research that smoky haze from catastrophic forest fires in Indonesia last year caused 100,000 deaths.

In Indonesia, a spokesman for the country’s disaster mitigation agency said the research “could be baseless or they have the wrong information”. Indonesia officially counted 24 deaths from the haze including people killed fighting the fires.

Singapore’s Ministry of Health said short term exposure to haze will generally not cause serious health problems. The study was “not reflective of the actual situation”, it said, and the overall death rate hadn’t changed last year.

In Malaysia, Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said officials are still studying the research, which is “computer generated, not based on hard data”.

“People have died but to what extent the haze contributed to it, it’s hard to say,” he said. “If an 80-year-old fellow with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problem and exposure to haze died, what did he die of? This is hell of a difficult question to answer.”

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast ... eath-study

Do you lot mean the haze here in Cambodia from burning plastic, polyurethane and Styrofoam containers ???

The "haze season" is approaching, adding to SEA's environmental woes, as it does every year.

As Covid-time haze season approaches, report claims APP has been clearing and draining peatlands
Satellite analysis has found that Asia Pulp and Paper-linked companies have cleared 3,500 hectares of peatland over the last two years, including since the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, according to a report by Greenpeace. APP denies the allegations.
By Robin Hicks
July 24, 2020

Companies owned or supplied by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) may have cleared 3,500 hectares (ha) of environmentally sensitive peatland in their concessions over the last two years, with 50 ha of peatland burning just last month, satellite analysis by environmental group Greenpeace has indicated.

The draining and burning of the swampy, carbon-rich landscape to develop plantations would violate a historic pledge Indonesian’s largest pulpwood company made in 2013 to stop converting peatlands, which are among the world’s most powerful carbon sinks. An estimated 60 per cent of APP’s concessions are on peatlands.

The report emerges during the Covid-19 pandemic and ahead of the haze season, an annual environmental calamity that emits more carbon than Indonesia’s energy and transport sectors combined, mainly as a result of drained and burned peatlands.

Greenpeace identified three APP-linked companies that have been converting peatlands in Sumatra between August 2018 and June 2020. Two of the them, wood suppliers PT Bumi Mekar Hijau (BMH) and PT Bumi Andalas Permai (BAP), are located in South Sumatra, where APP opened a new pulp mill in 2016.
https://www.eco-business.com/news/as-co ... peatlands/

when dealing with this problem it has to be realized that its a global issue. the burn offs happen in all tropical countries in their dry seasons and have for centuries. its going to take western sanctions to make a change. the authoritarian governments in the tropical countries only care about their off shore bank balances

In Cambodia it is caused by a lot of small fires, which are people burning off their rubbish. Yes, there are enough small fires to create a haze. On many days it is worse than Sydney.

I talked to one Cambodian man, and told him he can get rubbish collected for $4 per month. That is what neighbours were paying. He did not want to pay $4 per month. He wanted to burn it. (Prices of rubbish collection may vary from place to place.)

Cambodia should work towards rubbish collection in all towns and villages. They could have different companies doing it in different places. Then make paying for rubbish collection compulsory. Then make having a bin compulsory. Then introduce a second bin for recycling.

explorer wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:27 pm In Cambodia it is caused by a lot of small fires, which are people burning off their rubbish. Yes, there are enough small fires to create a haze. On many days it is worse than Sydney.

I talked to one Cambodian man, and told him he can get rubbish collected for $4 per month. That is what neighbours were paying. He did not want to pay $4 per month. He wanted to burn it. (Prices of rubbish collection may vary from place to place.)

Cambodia should work towards rubbish collection in all towns and villages. They could have different companies doing it in different places. Then make paying for rubbish collection compulsory. Then make having a bin compulsory. Then introduce a second bin for recycling.

Perhaps some unnamed donor will give Cambodia 290 rubbish truck to collect all the rubbish .?


Quote]
a shipment of 290 Chinese-made military trucks on Thursday, saying the vehicles were not aid from Beijing but gifts from unnamed donors saying that the money for the trucks came from private donations and did not cost Cambodia a single riel.