Indonesia: Haze begins to envelope Riau capital

Rizal Harahap and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post 28 Feb 15;

Haze from forest and land fires in several regencies in Riau has started covering Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, reducing visibility to only about 3 kilometers on Friday morning. It is the worst haze since fires returned to the region in mid January.

Based on the direction of the wind, the haze covering Pekanbaru is most likely to have come from the eastern coastal regions of Bengkalis, Pelalawan and Siak regencies.

The latest satellite data at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Pekanbaru station showed 15 hot spots in Riau on Friday morning. Of them seven were detected in Siak, three each in Pelalawan and Bengkalis and two others in Rokan Hulu.

“Nine of the hot spots have been identified as fires with a reliability level of over 70 percent,” station head Sugarin said.

Seen from four observation sites, he said, only Pekanbaru was covered in thick haze on Friday morning while Pelalawan, Rengat and Dumai had thin haze with visibility ranging between 3 and 6 kilometers.

“The air quality in Pekanbaru has declined, touching 80 on the pollutant-standards index, or categorized as medium,” he said.

Cumulatively, according to Sugarin, the number of hot spots in Riau would tend to increase as the peak of the dry season approached.

This month the number of hot spots increased dramatically to 337 from 138 last month, of which 139 were identified as fires. In some areas, he said, rain had not fallen for up to over a month, making them very vulnerable to fires.

Sugarin expressed the hope that the government could extinguish the fires before the peak of the dry season in March and April.

“Otherwise, the impact will disrupt economic activities here just like previously,” he said.

In April the wind usually changes direction, blowing to the east. If forest and land fires are not properly dealt with during that time it is feared that once again haze will spread to neighboring countries.

To deal with the problem, the Riau administration has asked the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) to help extinguish fires.

Head of Riau Environment Agency (BLH), Yulwiriati Moesa, said that together with other government institutions, the provincial administration had scheduled artificial-rain programs in coastal regions for the whole month of March.

“We are preparing all we need,” said Yulwiriati, adding that the forest and land fire coordination still had some 25 tons of salt powder and 43 tons more would be added for the artificial-rain program.

The program is expected to cost Rp 16 billion (US$1.2 million), including the cost of operating two Hercules C-130 and a Cassa 212 aircraft to seed the cloud with salt.

Separately the West Sumatra Forestry Agency said it continued to monitor hot spots in the region although their number had decreased. Head of the agency’s forest security and protection division, Faridil Afrasy, said that as of Thursday satellites had detected 12 hot spots, a drop from the 26 detected in January.

“Based on the short dry season’s climatic pattern this year, the situation is relatively secure, but we continue to watch and be prepared,” Faridil said.

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