ASEAN environment ministers will set up an early warning system for haze and four countries – Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei – will “adopt” fire-prone regions in Indonesia to check the pollution.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the decisions were made at the Asean environment ministers meeting in Cebu last week.

He said the ministers had also set up a technical committee comprising Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Thailand to discuss the matter further.

The committee will meet every three months to formulate an action plan.

An early warning system was needed as the current detection of hotspots via satellite was not accurate, said Azmi, adding that it detected areas that were not only on fire but showed high temperatures as well.

“In future meetings, we will discuss the early warning system and the region adoption programme,” Azmi told reporters at the Parliament lobby after winding up the debate on the Budget.

He said he would propose the programme to the Cabinet once it is finalised.

He also said ministers of the four countries had agreed to contribute US$50,000 (RM185,000) each to set up the Asean Haze Fund.

“However, we need more money and will probably ask for help from international organisations,” he said, adding that Indonesia had stated that US$60mil (RM222mil) was needed to fight the haze.

On another matter, Azmi said the ministry had gazetted guidelines for building environment-friendly drainage in housing areas to tackle flash floods.

He said the system called Environmental Friendly Manual Drainage was a research project undertaken by Universiti Sains Malaysia.

He said the drains would be made of plastic instead of concrete and wastewater would be filtered to minimise pollution.