NEA relays concerns to Jakarta as air quality worsens

SINGAPORE — With Singaporeans waking up to a smoky, hazy gloom on Friday (Aug 26) — one that worsened over the day — the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) chief executive officer has registered Singapore’s concerns with his Indonesian counterpart over air quality deteriorating, should fires in Indonesia continue.

Air quality, which hit the “unhealthy” range on the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) on Friday — the first time this year — is expected to remain in this range on Saturday.

In a letter to his Indonesian counterpart on Friday, NEA CEO Ronnie Tay urged Indonesia to “continue taking the necessary actions to prevent and mitigate the fires during this dry season”, and asked for an update on the situation in Sumatra and Kalimantan. 

As the 24-hour PSI reading crept into unhealthy territory — 101 to 200 — the NEA also made the unusual move of issuing three media advisories on the situation in a day — at about 11am, 2pm and 6pm. Singapore last experienced a prolonged period of unhealthy haze in October 2015.

At of 10pm on Friday, the 24-hr PSI is at 89-126, which is in the moderate to unhealthy range. The one-hour PM2.5 reading islandwide at 10pm was 28 to 108 — within the “Normal” to “Elevated” band — and down from a peak of 137 to 216 at noon. PM2.5, a pollutant, is very fine particulate matter, and the NEA introduced one-hour readings with bandings in June aimed at helping people interpret one-hour PM2.5 levels better.

The NEA said the smoky conditions on Friday was due to the smoke haze that was blown in from central Sumatra by the prevailing westerly winds. Eleven hotspots were detected in Sumatra.

A team of Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) researchers in Riau said their local sources found that the fires in northern Riau were not on concession lands. Five out of some 30 fires there are severe and could intensify and spread into concession areas, said SIIA director (policy programmes) Lee Chen Chen.

In its forecast for Saturday, NEA noted that the prevailing winds will blow mainly from the west and current hazy conditions are expected to persist. As such, the PSI for Saturday is expected to be in the “Unhealthy” range while the one-hour PM2.5 reading is expected to fluctuate between Band II (Elevated) and Band III (High).

With the authorities advising against prolonged or strenuous physical exertions outdoors on Friday, sales of N95 masks and haze-related products surged among some retailers.

NTUC Health Unity Pharmacy said Friday’s sale of facial and N95 masks were 10 times more than the daily average number of face masks sold. Their sale of eye drops and lozenges also increased on Friday.

Its director of wholesale Andy Wan added that their outlets have sufficient stock of face masks, and company is also monitoring stock levels to ensure they are quickly replenished from their warehouse.

Meanwhile, free haze kits from pharmacy chain Guardian were also fully redeemed by 2pm on Friday. Guardian Health & Beauty and GlaxoSmithKline had set aside 5,000 haze kits — containing Panadol, a bottle of water and a N95 mask — on Thursday to encourage consumers to stay prepared for the haze. Friday alone saw people snapping up 2,300 of these kits. Most Guardian stores had run out of masks due to the sudden spike in demand on Friday. But the company has arranged for emergency deliveries to key stores.

Mdm Lim Pik Luan, 62, a resident in the West, said she noticed the burning smell in the air when she woke up around 6am on Friday.

“I didn’t plan on heading out today. But looking at the haze situation, I don’t think I should be going out, especially with my grandchildren,” she added in Mandarin.