Pollution in Singapore reached “life threatening” levels on Friday, caused by crop fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Singapore’s environment minister said on his Facebook page: “We need urgent definitive action by Indonesia to tackle the problem at source. Singaporeans have lost patience, and are understandably angry, distressed and concerned.”
Indonesia’s clean-up operation chief, Agung Laksono, retorted: “Singapore should not be behaving like a child and making all this noise.”
Indonesia isn’t standing idly by—it’s flying choppers over Sumatra to dump water on the fires, and to be fair Laksono’s comments were made on Thursday, when pollution in Singapore was merely “hazardous.” As we previously reported, much of the city is obscured by grey haze. Singaporean and Indonesian ministers are meeting today to sort out their differences and come up with a joint plan.