[CNN, 02/25/98]
KUCHING, Malaysia (CNN) -- Southeast Asian nations, worried about new forest fires in cash-strapped Indonesia, sought more international aid Wednesday to help prevent a recurrence of last year's smog, which covered much of the region.
The pollution caused more than $1.3 billion in damage to Southeast Asia in 1997, according to a study released in Jakarta by two environmental groups.
The study was conducted by the Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) and the Indonesia program of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Wildfires this year already have destroyed some 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) of drought-affected forest on the Indonesian part of Borneo island. Another 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) are burning in Kalimantan.
Environment ministers from the nine-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said in Kuching on Wednesday that the rash of fires are a concern because of a drought that has left many parts of the region extremely dry.
``We need to be extra vigilant against the onset of more fires,'' Singapore's Environment Minister Yeow Cheow Tong told the ASEAN ministers at a one-day meeting on smog.
Seasonal rains late in 1997 finally doused most of the fires. Most of the damage -- about $1 billion worth -- was incurred by Indonesia, mostly in added health costs, the environmental report said.
Malaysia had $300 million in losses, mainly from lost industrial production and a drop in tourism. Singapore lost more than $60 million, mostly from tourism, the study found.
The full costs of the haze may not be known for years, the study's authors cautioned, because of potential long-term health problems caused by the smoke and fire damage done to the forest.