The Singapore government has taken a much tougher stance on the true causers of the haze, and about time too. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has served Singapore-listed firm a legal notice to be transparent about information in regards to their subsidiaries here and in Indonesia, as well as what they’re doing to put out the fires.
Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, were served a notice under the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act by the NEA last week, Channel NewsAsia reports. The Singapore-based firm had been under intense scrutiny as one of the biggest companies behind the illegal forest fires raging across Sumatra and Kalimantan. One executive from APP’s Bumi Mekar Hijau unit was even arrested two weeks ago for his involvement in the fires.
Even though APP have noted that they’ve been operating a “Zero Burning” policy in their supply chain since 1996, forest fires are still ongoing in their suppliers’ land in Indonesia.
The firm has admitted that they were aware of the raging haze-causing inferno, and their firefighting teams are working hard to extinguish them. According to them, they’re working on a long-term solution to the “highly complex” issues behind the causes of the fire — intertwined with the rights of local communities, illegal activities by enterprises, complicated land rights usage and other hurdles.
Meanwhile, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan has also taken aim at four other companies believed to be behind Indonesia’s fires, namely Rimba Hutani mas, Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries, Bumi Sriwijaya Sentosa and Wachyuni Mandira. They’ve been warned to take measures to extinguish fires on their land and submit action plans on how to prevent futures ones, The Straits Times reports.
The firmer actions meted out by the Singapore government have finally arrived after haze levels surged up to hazardous levels over the past few days, which brought schools to a close last Friday. Also, they must be really pissed off at Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla who recently reiterated his stance that his country need not apologise for the haze choking Singapore and Malaysia. A classy man indeed.
Photo: Reuters
