Air quality in several areas of Singapore reached unhealthy levels on Saturday due to winds that brought haze from wildfires in Indonesia, the city-state’s environmental agency reported.
A longer dry season has increased the risk of wildfires on Indonesia’s largest islands and raised fears of new fires like those that have hit air quality in Malaysia and Singapore in recent years.
The…
Air quality in several areas of Singapore reached unhealthy levels on Saturday due to winds that brought haze from wildfires in Indonesia, the city-state’s environmental agency reported.
A longer dry season has increased the risk of wildfires on Indonesia’s largest islands and raised fears of new fires like those that have hit air quality in Malaysia and Singapore in recent years.
Singapore’s national environment agency said the pollution standard index (PSI) exceeded the unhealthy level of 100 on Saturday, reaching 111 in an eastern suburb and 102 in the center of the island in the morning.
If PSI levels are between 100 and 200, authorities recommend “reducing outdoor physical activity.”
However, people were jogging and cycling in a park in the east of the city.
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The agency said late Friday that the number of fire outbreaks on the Indonesian island of Sumatra rose to 212 from 65 on Thursday and 15 on Wednesday.
“Clouds of smoke and haze were observed on satellite images over southern and central Sumatra. A small change in wind direction (…) brought some of the haze to Singapore and caused air quality to deteriorate,” he added.
Malaysia was also affected, with the top environmental agency blaming fires in Indonesia for the haze.
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But the Indonesian Environment Ministry denied that the fires were responsible for air problems in neighboring countries.
MBA/SMW/MAS/ARM