Forest Fires Smoke Shut Down Jambi Airport

TEMPO Interactive 29 Sep 09;

Jakarta: Forest fires in Sumatra have shutdown the Sultan Thaha Airport in Jambi since Tuesday noon, as smoke grew thicker after haze returned to the province last weekend.

“There were several uninterrupted flights from and to the airport, but after 10:30 the haze was getting thicker with visual range was only about 500 meters,” head of the airport Basuki Mardianto said.

Basuki said the airport had to be closed until the aerial visual range around the airport return to normal. Many flights were delayed and hundreds of passengers have to postpone their trip for uncertain extent of time.

A disappointed passenger told Tempo that the disruption has prevented him from attending a conference on climate change in Thailand. Arif Mundar, who said he was supposed to represent Indonesia at the meeting slammed the government for its lack of capacity in containing forest fire.

Arif said license and permit from the government for plantation companies to clear Sumatra peat land for plantation has trigger forest fires.

Based on satellite surveillance image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the smoke drifts from forest fires spots outside Jambi, as no forest fires spotted in the the province on September 28th.

Some of the spotted fires in Sumatra include 32 in South Sumatra, 17 in Riau Province, 12 in Bangka Belitung Province, 11 in Lampung Province, two in North Sumatra, and one in West Sumatra.

SYAIPUL BAKHORI

Sarawak hit by thick haze
Stephen Then, The Star 30 Sep 09;

MIRI: Sarawak has been badly hit by a wave of thick haze from forest fires raging in Kalimantan.

Almost the entire state, except for Kapit Division, saw visibility drop to dangerous levels yesterday morning.

Northern Sarawak appears to be the worst-hit, with Bintulu recording visibility of only 1km, Limbang 3km and Miri about 4km yesterday morning.

“The Department of Environ-ment (DOE) has carried out checks and found there are no hotspots within northern Sarawak.

“The haze we are seeing here is from foreign sources,” DOE chief for Miri Division Siva Nathiran said when contacted yesterday.

“There are many hotspots in Kalimantan now.” he said.

Yesterday, a dense veil of grey haze lay low over Miri City like a shroud, blotting out the South China Sea. Even the shorelines located just 1km from the city could no longer be seen.

On a normal day, one can see the offshore oil-rigs located 10km away in the South China Sea, from Canada Hill overlooking the city.

A check with the Sarawak Meteorological Department head-quarters in Kuching showed that the entire state was just as hazy yesterday, except for the Kapit Division in central Sarawak.

A weather forecaster said there were almost 200 hotspots detected in Kalimantan.

Two months ago, local fires ravaged more than 3,000 hectares of land in Kuala Baram near the Sarawak-Brunei border, resulting in the Air Pollutant Index (API) reaching a high of 186.

In Kuala Lumpur, according to the DOE website as of 11am, Sarikei (111), Sri Aman (111) and Sibu (117) were the three areas that registered unhealthy API readings while 26 areas remained moderate and 21 registered good readings, Bernama reports.