This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 12, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: The government should calculate the economic and social costs of the smoke pollution caused by the forest fires in Indonesia, said Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz yesterday.

The former international trade and industry minister said calculations need to be done for Malaysia to make the parties responsible for the pollution to be “accountable”.

“The smoke is an annual nuisance, but economic and social costs must be calculated, in the event we need to make accountable those who are responsible for the environmental hazard,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

Singapore has taken steps to initiate legal action against Indonesian firms for the massive forest burning that has caused smoke to blanket Malaysia and Singapore.

Rafidah said the situation would impact the economy in terms of productivity losses and opportunity costs. It caused several school closures intermittently over the past few weeks.

“Many outdoor programmes have also had to be curtailed or cancelled altogether. And its negative impact on health and well-being certainly is significant,” Rafidah said.

The annual Standard Chartered Marathon was also cancelled because of the pollution.

Some areas in the Klang Valley breached the “hazardous” level in air pollutant index (API) readings last week.

Bernama reported that the air quality in Port Klang recorded a moderate API reading of 91 at 2pm yesterday, which was approaching the unhealthy level between 101 and 200. — The Malaysian Insider/Bernama