Hazy Weather To Make A Comeback
By Khairunnisa Ibrahim

Bandar Seri Begawan - Expect slight haze and reduced visibility to make a comeback in the country in the next three months, during the typically dry late Northeast Monsoon season.

The Brunei Meteorological Station (BMS) of the Department of Civil Aviation has issued a warning of the impending episode, and appealed to the public to refrain from engaging in open burning activities that could aggravate the situation.

In the past, this period had also witnessed haze because of relatively stable atmospheric conditions over the region, resulting in less rainfall as it is usually the driest season of the year.

This year, overall haze conditions over the next three months are likely to be between "normal and slight" with visibility dropping to as low as five kilometres.

The slightly dry conditions currently affecting the country can be expected to persist until mid-April, when the monsoon cycle enters the transitional period from April through May. By then, the monsoon activity is expected to pick up and gradu ally improve the dry situation.

Significant haze episodes in the past were caused by a combination of factors - large-scale fires in neighbouring countries, prevailing low-level wind flow that transported the smoke haze to the sultanate, and anomalous atmospheric circulation due to the El Nifto Southern Oscillation phenomenon.

However, the upcoming haze episode is only expected to be mild, as only a few hotspots are currently detected over Northern Sumatra and Southern Kalimantan, from where the smoke haze originated.

In addition, the northeast low level wind flows would divert the haze from the hotspot sources to the southwest or west or the region, and away from Brunei.

Haze is still a sensitive issue in the region particularly after the intense haze episode in 1997-98. An estimated 45,000 square kilometres of forest and land went up in flames between July and November 1997 on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Early the following year, fires again destroyed forests, this time in Kalimantan alone, resulting in considerable air pollution and dramatically reduced visibility in the region.

During the intense haze, schools were closed to prevent asthma attacks and other ailments among the young and the old. It also reduced visibility, disrupting flights into and out of the affected countries.

Last year Brunei faced smoke haze for a prolonged period from August to early November because of widespread land and forest fires in Kalimantan due to land clearing activities. The haze incident triggered concern among the affected countries, and resulted in several urgent meetings between the relevant intergovernment ministries.

During one such meeting, five Southeast Asian countries agreed to set up the Asean Transboundary Haze Pollution Control Fund to assist Indonesia in tackling the haze.

Each country has pledged $50,000 for the fund, according to the Indonesian Rachmat Witoelar. The fund will only be available after Indonesia ratifies the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which it signed in 2002 along with its Asean counterparts, but it has yet to ratify it, awaiting endorsement from the parliament. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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