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SINGAPORE: Indonesia's Jambi Province will now be able to accurately measure air quality in the area and predict if a forest fire is likely to happen.
Three air and weather monitoring stations were installed by Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) in various parts of the province – in Sengeti, Desa Arang-arang and Kota Jambi.
Sengeti has an Air and Weather Monitoring Station, Kota Jambi has an Air Quality Station, while Desa Arang-Arang has a Weather Station.
Singapore's Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim officially handed over the monitoring stations to the Jambi Provincial Government on Friday morning.
The Air Quality Station measures air pollutants and will indicate whether the air quality is in the good, moderate, unhealthy, very unhealthy or hazardous range.
The weather monitoring equipment measures wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature, humidity and radiation.
Data obtained will be used to compute the Fire Danger Rating Index, which serves to indicate the likelihood and spread of fires. This data is accessible to the Jambi Provincial authorities and the National Environment Agency in Singapore.
Developing the Fire Danger Rating Index is part of a 7-Action Programme under an Indonesia-Singapore collaboration on Jambi Province to prevent and curb land and forest fires.
Singapore has set aside S$1 million to implement the programmes, which include training Indonesian officers in reading and interpreting satellite pictures for detecting hotspots and organising workshops on Zero-Burning Practices.
The three stations cost S$400,000 to set up and will cost another S$200,000 to maintain over the next two years.
"The most important measure for us is the realisation that we have been able to deliver the air and monitoring stations... Through this collaboration, we have scaled up the capability of the Jambi officials to be able to detect and monitor.
"They can use those tools to plan ahead in terms of dealing with the fire-prone areas within this district," said Dr Yaacob.
Indonesia's State Minister for Environment, Rachmat Witoelar, said: "We have lessons learnt from here. In particular, what is highly valued by Dr Yaacob and myself is the commitment by the locals and the government. They are in a position to make a difference in this aspect."
With the dry season expected to be worsened by El Nino this year, Jambi authorities said with accurate information on forest fire risk, they can now send out an alert, advising the public not to discard their cigarette butts carelessly or start an open fire, which may set off an inferno.
- CNA/yb/so
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