[915] Of one real solution to the haze problem

Last Sunday in the NST, I read an article that relates to the haze which we are currently experiencing. Unlike most articles which suggest nothing to solve this environmental problem, this particular article highlights a real solution. The solution is simple, cheap and long term in nature; it involves aiding the locals of Kalimantan and Sumatra to reduce the chances for nature to catch fire:

…a million hectares of peat forest was cleared for padi over a decade ago.

At the time, thousands of kilometres of canals were dug to keep the soil drained in the rainy season and irrigated during the dry.

But the peatland stood high above the adjacent rivers, so the canals only sucked them dry. The soils were not suitable for padi and drainage left the parched peat highly flammable.

In the El Nino-driven dry season of 1997-1998, this tinderbox went up in flames and enveloped the region in a shroud of haze.

The site was abandoned but continued to burn periodically through years of inaction, hitting Sarawak particularly hard.

Then three years ago, Malaysian non-governmental organisation Global Environment Centre (GEC), and Wetlands International Indonesia, began talking to locals about blocking off the canals.

The canals were so wide that each could fit a giant IMAX screen between its peaty walls, with space to spare. Together, they were draining millions of cubic metres of water from the area.

“All the experts said we’d need machines to block canals wider than two metres,” said GEC director Faizal Parish.

“If we had listened, all our money would have been spent on excavators.”

Instead they sat down with locals from the nearest villages, hardy and resourceful people, who’d carved out a life in this desolate corner of Borneo with few amenities.

The groups picked their brains for ideas and brought civil engineers into the talks with local communities and government agencies.

Project partners Wildlife Habitat Canada and Indonesia’s Forest Protection and Nature Conservation directorate were also involved.

And here was born the plan — to block the canals by hand using local techniques.

Each block consisted of three log walls to be built across the canal by a clever use of a lever system and the force of human weight.

Each wall would be 3.3 metres away from the next. The spaces between them were filled with sandbags to staunch the flow of water.

Construction of each block took 50 people, three months and countless trips on narrow boats lugging 25,000 sandbags to the site.

In total, seven blocks were rammed into place along two main canals and a smaller one.

The blocks have since raised the water level in the peatland.

There have been no fires in the area and the forest has started to recover. Locals are fishing in the blocked-off sections of the canal.

The project has protected a site roughly the size of Singapore from fires. As big as that seems, it is only a twentieth of the vast Mega Rice Project.

Instead of feeling frustrated and disappointed, it’s wise for the Malaysian and Singaporean governments to fund this project.