Every July, Singapore prepares to see its greenery vanish beneath a mantle of smoke. The haze from land-clearing fires drifts from Indonesia and Malaysia each dry season. But a recent study has revealed another source of air pollution from Singapore’s neighbours: heavy metals, such as chromium, from heavy industry.
That pollution lasts all year round, posing a chronic risk to human health. It comes from what experts have described as 'pollution havens': developing Southeast Asian economies such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand that are rapidly industrialising. They house the industries Singapore and other rich countries can afford to outsource.
Singapore has received an increasing amount of transboundary industrial pollution over the past two decades. Dry chromium deposits into the island nation’s oldest reservoir have doubled.
