Haze worsens in Singapore on Friday as 24-hour PSI hits hazardous level

Singapore’s air quality reached “very unhealthy” levels on September 24 as thick smog from agricultural fires in Indonesia’s neighboring Sumatra Island choked the city-state.

As the haze worsens and is likely to hit the hazardous level, all primary and secondary schools in Singapore will be closed on Friday, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE).

Teachers, however, will still need to go to school to supervise students whose parents are not able to make alternative arrangements for them.

A thickening, smoky haze cast a shadow over festivities in Singapore on Thursday, as Muslims headed to mosques to celebrate the culmination of the annual hajj pilgrimage and Chinese readied for a traditional harvest festival.

A nationwide music test has also been postponed until Tuesday, the Ministry of Education said.

“This is the first time I’m experiencing the haze first- hand”.

The agency advised healthy persons to “avoid prolonged or strenuous outdoor physical exertion” and urged the elderly, pregnant women and children to minimize outdoor exposure. Housewife Asnah Mohamad, 62, said she and a friend used their headscarves to cover their faces as they travelled to a mosque.

Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), the world’s second-largest listed palm planter by acreage, has stopped buying from a supplier sanctioned this week for allegedly causing forest fires in Indonesia, it said in a statement on Wednesday. “We hope it gets better soon”.

While mentioning Indonesian President Joko Widodo in her tweet, netizen Andrea Edwards wants immediate action to be taken.

The haze situation has been made worse this year by an El Niño weather system, which produces tinder-dry conditions in Indonesia and increases the risk of fires.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency told AFP that 2,081 fire “hotspots” were recorded in the worst-affected region of Indonesia’s Kalimantan and 290 in Sumatra on Thursday. “We heard that this haze has been going on for a couple of years and that it always lasts six to seven weeks”.