Haze to be less severe than in 2015
There is "zero chance" that the haze will return with the same severity as in 2015.
That is the bold claim of the newly minted head of Indonesia's Peatlands Restoration Agency, Mr Nazir Foead.
"I cannot guarantee that there will be no fires, but the scale of the fires... will be dramatically less," he said.
Mr Nazir was speaking to the media at the third Sustainable World Resources dialogue organised by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs yesterday.
Established in January, the agency has the task of restoring damaged peatlands and preventing future peatlands fires.
"When the peatlands burn, the disaster has started, so preventing the fires from happening in the first place is important," he said.
During his keynote speech, Mr Nazir listed some of the strategies that his agency has taken to achieve its goal.
First, they are blocking canals to flood the peatlands. The agency has been trying to keep the peatlands wet to prevent them from drying out and burning.
Second, they will install underground sensors to monitor the temperature and the water level of the peatlands.
Third, accurate peatlands maps will be made publicly available as part of Indonesia's One Map policy.
- Azim Azman
By the numbers 36.7 deg C
The maximum temperature in Seletar on Wednesday, the hottest in Singapore in 10 years. The mean temperature so far this month was 1.4 deg C higher than the long-term mean for April. The warm conditions are expected to persist for the rest of the month.
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