Singapore weighs haze prosecutions as air quality worsens

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has vowed to take action against companies found responsible for fires in neighbouring Indonesia that have plunged the region into an air pollution crisis.

The pledge comes as smoke from Indonesian wildfires blankets parts of Southeast Asia, closing schools and fuelling a surge in respiratory complaints across the region.

The city-state topped IQAir’s live ranking of the world’s most polluted major cities again early Friday, with Jakarta second and Kuala Lumpur fifth.

“We are looking into which companies may be responsible for the fires,” Wong said in a Facebook post late Thursday.

“Where warranted, we will take action under Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, and also explore joint action with other countries,” he said, without giving further details.

Singapore has no plantations or forests of its own, but several companies with concessions in Indonesia are reportedly based in the city-state.

Legal experts have cautioned that pursuing companies linked to the ongoing pollution remains challenging, with investigations reliant on cooperation from foreign authorities.

Singapore enacted the Transboundary haze Pollution Act in 2014, after a severe pollution episode in 2013. Another spell occurred in 2015.

The law allows authorities to target companies whose activities overseas cause or contribute to unhealthy haze levels in Singapore.

But enforcement has proved difficult.

Establishing responsibility was also challenging because it required authorities to share maps pinpointing fire hotspots, with overlapping land claims further complicating matters.

Singapore’s investigations into four Indonesian companies over their alleged role in the 2015 haze crisis remain open, a case that strained relations with Jakarta at the time.

Singapore’s air pollution spiked at 236 on IQAir’s Air Quality Index level into very unhealthy levels at around 10.30 am on Friday.

Under the Swiss-based company’s system, readings of 151-200 are considered unhealthy, 201-300 very unhealthy and above 300 hazardous.

“We cannot control the weather or the winds, nor can we directly control what happens beyond our borders,” said Wong.

“But we will do everything we can to protect Singaporeans, while working with our neighbours to address the underlying causes of the haze.”

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