Indonesia: Four hotspots left in Riau

Antara 1 Jul 13;

Pekanbaru, Riau Province (ANTARA News) - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Pekanbaru office said weather monitoring and geothermal Terra and Aqua satelite detected four fires still remained in Riau province on Monday.

"Two of the hotspots are in Siak District, one in Rokan Hulu District and another one in Rokan Hilir District," the BMKG Pekanbaru office analyst Warih Budi Lestari said.

National Disaster Management Agency (BPNB) spokesman Dr. Agus Wibowo said the number of hotspots is decreasing each day.

Earlier on Sunday, Agus said aerial survey`s results showed dozens of hotspots, but now only four left.

According to him, the declined number of hotspots indicated both water-bombing and weather modification efforts that had been carried out were successful.

He added water bombing had been done by using some helicopters during operations on Sunday (30/6).

A helicopter flew to Perawang, Tualang Sub-Dsitrict, Siak District at 9:46 to 14:47 pm and done water bombing 25 times.

While two other helicopters, according to Agus, operating from 10:30 to 14:46 pm to Tanjung Palas, Dumai, had conducted water bombing 44 times.

"Maximal water bombing had been done and many fires were able to be extinguished," he said adding the TNI and Brimob forces had assured it.

Agus said BNPB will proceed operations to some other locations in the country, especially the island of Borneo, if operations in Sumatra, especially in Riau, were done.

"But we are still waiting for orders. Operations could be completed in the next few days. Meanwhile, two helicopters and a special water boombing aircraft leased from Russia is planned to participate in the operations," he said.

(I029/H-YH)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

Police arrest 23 suspects over forest fires
Antara 1 Jul 13;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Police of Riau have arrested 23 suspects in connection with forest and peat land fires in the province that have caused blanketing haze over the Sumatran region and some neighboring countries.

Spokesperson of the Riau Police Command, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Hermansyah, said here on Monday that two more suspects had been arrested following reports from local people making the number of the suspects to reach 23 who are all now under police detention.

The last two suspects namely Ham, arrested in Tanjung Leba Village, Bukit Batu Subdistrict of Bengkalis and BA, arrested in Sang Kemang Village, Koto Gasib Subdistrict of Siak District.

"However, we haven`t received data about the areas that had been burned. The crime scenes varied," Hermansyah said.

The 23 suspects have allegedly caused forest and land fires in 15 areas located in some districts in the Riau Province.

Besides Ham, there were five other suspects arrested by Bengkalis Police, namely Subari (46), Hartono (35), Ali Imron, Ali Umar and Atim.

In Rokan Hulu District, 11 suspects in four cases had been arrested, namely Hotman Purba (56), Ketiman, Sukadi, Aswin, Rizal, Heriyadi Saputra, Eka Budi Arianto, Marlin Nasution, Mohammad Yasir, KH Johari and Abdul Wahab.

Two suspects, Sumardi (42) and Shokai Autlo were arrested by Pelalawan District Police.

The Siak and Dumai District Police respectively arrested two suspects.

"The 23 suspects are being detained in their respective district police offices for investigation. The number of suspects might still increase," Hermawan said.

The Police are coordinating with the Ministry of Environment to investigate any indication of involvement of companies in the forest fires.

Meanwhile, the Riau Health Office`s Environmental Health Section Chief Dewani said about 10,382 citizens in Riau Province have been suffering from acute respiratory infections (ISPA) due to haze that has hit the area since the past several weeks.

Among the areas that have the most number of victims are Indragiri Hulu District (2,863 people), Dumai city (1,554 people), Bengkalis District (1,438 people) and Siak District (1,183 people).

However, the air quality index in Riau continues to improve in line with the declining number of hotspots following fire fighting operations.

Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency`s Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said efforts to fight land and forest fires are still continuing including through water bombing and artificial rain making.

(A059/H-YH)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

Three flights from Dumai cancelled due to haze
Antara 1 Jul 13;

Dumai city, Riau province (ANTARA News) - Three flights from Dumai city are cancelled due to low visibility following haze that is still happening in the area, chief of Dumai airport`s authority, Catur Hargowo, said here on Monday.

"From Monday morning until afternoon the visibility is still below standard namely at around 1,000 meters (normal visibility must be around 2,500-4,500 meters). It is considered as unsafe for flights," he said.

The three cancelled flights are Sky Aviation flight scheduled to leave for Pekanbaru city (Riau province`s capital) and Pelita Air Pertamina and Pelita Air Chevron flights (both to leave for Jakarta).

Catur added he is not sure of when flights in the airport would be resumed.

Earlier the head of public relations and information data center of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said air quality index in Riau has continued to improve in line with the declining number of forest and land fires following fire fighting operations.

Until the 10th day of operations to eradicate haze in Riau several indicators had shown a positive trend, he said.

Based on the results of monitoring through NOAA satellites on June 22 the number of fires was still recorded at 92 while on June 24 it reached 265 but on June 29 only one was left over.

This has resulted in the improvement of air quality in the region and visibility, he said.

(A051/H-YH)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

Indonesia's haze battle enters 'preventive mode'
Night patrols increased; cloud-seeding planes on standby in case of new fires
Zubaidah Nazeer, Indonesia Correspondent, In Pekanbaru (Riau Province)
Straits Times 2 Jul 13;

INDONESIAN disaster officials say they are now shifting into preventive mode in the battle against the haze, in a bid to respond faster and put out the fires before they spread out of control.

This approach is based on an increase in night patrols, keeping water-bombing and cloud-seeding aircraft on standby and distributing pamphlets warning farmers of heavy sanctions for slash-and- burn tactics.

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) spokesman in Riau, Dr Agus Wibowo, said: "We cannot be reactive and respond only when a fire breaks out. We are anticipating seven other provinces to be hit by fires as the dry season picks up."

Yesterday, he said planes being deployed for cloud seeding and water bombing in Riau should be able to fly out at short notice to Jambi, South Sumatra and Lampung in Sumatra, and four provinces in Kalimantan.

Indeed, as most Riau residents are breathing easier after the BNPB declared its 10-day operation to counter the fires and haze a success, attention is now shifting to fire-prone provinces elsewhere. The number of hot spots in Riau was drastically reduced from 262 last Monday to four yesterday, but three planes had to be diverted from landing in Dumai airport in northern Riau, indicating that the battle against large-scale fires is far from over.

Dumai was one of the worst-affected regencies in Riau, hitting a record 900 on the Pollutant Standards Index last Monday, with visibility at less than 500m. Some 1,554 residents complained of respiratory problems last month.

Weather forecasters say winds are helping to blow the thinning haze away from Singapore and Malaysia, but the reprieve from the haze could be temporary as the dry season will peak next month and last as long as October.

Said Dr Agus: "We are hoping that within these few days, the hot spots will be gone in Riau."

Brigadier-General Tatang Sulaiman said: "Water bombing has helped but can put out fires only if they are on the surface. Now, our soldiers are trying to put out peat fires below the ground."

National police spokesman Agus Rianto said six more farmers have been caught for illegal land-clearing using fire, bringing the tally to 23.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said large corporations have got to take action against farmers and others whom they pay to clear their land if their land gets burnt, even if they practise zero-burning policies.

A WWF patrol on Sunday into the Tesso Nilo forest complex in southern Riau that contains a national park, logging concession areas and illegally deforested areas found a large area razed.

In a statement last Thursday, it said: "WWF calls for palm oil companies to take responsibility for the full supply chain of palm oil and ensure that fruit or processed oil bought from third-party providers are not fuelling the haze."