Daze Over The Haze

Open burning in Sumatera has been causing haze in West Malaysia and Sumatera itself. Malaysia has been complaining about the pollution caused by Indonesia for years but there are still no drastic actions being taken. Partly is also because most of the estates that used open burning to clear their land belong to wealthy Malaysian palm oil plantation companies.

Since my son was born in 2006, we have had several hazy situations in Klang until my wife had to bring the baby to Ipoh. During my first trip to Palembang back in 2006, the haze situation was so bad until the visibility is only 10m! Throughout 2007-2009 there were not many "hazy" occurances in Palembang except for last week.

Open burning is still very prevalent in Palembang. We have neighbours who burns their rubbish and trees in the open without considering that the smoke is flowing into to others' house. This is very similar to the smoking situation where the inconsiderate smokers puff their second hand smoke in your face!

My son started with a fever during the weekend. This was followed by a bad cough that lasted until today. My wife is starting to have itchy throat and complained that something is irritating her nose. She has been having sniffles since the weekend.

We tried to give our son Echinesia (a herb & root extract that helps boost the body's immune system) and my wife cooked herself some garlic & ginger drink (kills germs). Coughs and colds are common in areas that has haze. We just have to drink lots of water and pump ourselves with vitamin C to overcome the effects of this haze season (normally occurs during the hot season). Supposedly the rainy season will only start in October but it poured quite heavily last night. Hopefully it will wash away the hazy elements in the air.

Living in a 3rd world country, you will have to sacrifice quality of water and also AIR!