Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Straits Times 1 Aug 15;
As the El Nino weather pattern strengthens, Indonesia said yesterday it would step up its fight against forest fires triggered by dry, hot weather throughout much of the country.
Indonesia is worried about a repeat of the 1997-98 El Nino, which caused severe drought, damaged crops and triggered massive forest fires. The blazes wiped out millions of hectares of forest and plantation areas, and caused losses estimated at US$2.45 billion then. The smoke haze covered much of the region, damaging tourism and causing a jump in health costs.
Fires and smoke have returned in recent weeks, particularly on Sumatra island and meteorologists in Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere are forecasting the current El Nino to strengthen over the coming months. That is expected to exacerbate fires and damage crops such as coffee and cocoa, important exports for Indonesia.
The government has carried out cloud-seeding in Sumatra but officials say it has not been as successful as hoped.
The military will be called in to use Super Puma helicopters for water-bombing operations, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indriyono Soesilo told reporters at the presidential palace yesterday. They were last used to fight the 1997-98 fires.
Singapore has offered the use of at least one helicopter to beef up water-bombing operations, but Indonesia has yet to accept the offer, Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, said in Jakarta earlier this week.
In Riau, a separate programme involving a pulp and paper firm is training villagers and local police how to fight fires, and is encouraging local communities not to clear land using traditional slash-and- burn agriculture.
El Ninos usually bring drought to South-east Asia and eastern Australia, and wetter and cooler summers to parts of North America, while crimping the frequency of Atlantic hurricanes. They are caused by periodic warming of the Pacific and can roil agricultural markets as farmers contend with drought or too much rain.
The dry spell in the southern regions in Indonesia will strengthen from August to December, with the main impact to be seen in areas including Lampung, South Sumatra, Java and South Sulawesi, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said on Thursday.
The result of El Nino will be failed harvests in Indonesia, the forecaster said in an e-mailed statement, Bloomberg reported. Lampung and South Sumatra are Indonesia's main growing regions for robusta coffee beans, while Sulawesi is the country's main cocoa producer and Java is the main rice area.
With the shortage of rain, pressure is growing on local and national authorities. The number of hot spots spiked on Thursday. Visibility in Pekanbaru, in Riau province near Singapore, dropped to 800m as Sumatra recorded 326 hot spots, of which 186 were in Riau.
Yesterday, the number of hot spots in Sumatra fell to 76.
In the past six months, Riau police have declared 24 individuals as suspects for illegally burning land and forest, charging them with breaching plantation and environmental laws.
Thick haze causes flight and health issues in Riau
Rizal Harahap and Jon Afrizal, The Jakarta Post 31 Jul 15;
Thick haze originating from forest and land fires in Riau has started to disturb flights in Pekanbaru, and has also threatened the health of the residents in the provincial capital.
The authority of Pekanbaru Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport said that the haze had caused the visibility in the region to be less than 1,000 meters.
“This morning the visibility was only 800 meters. We made a regulation that the minimum visibility for an aircraft to land at the airport is 1,000 meters,” said Hasturman Yunus, the head of the airport’s service and operation division, in Pekanbaru on Thursday.
Due to the worsening condition, Citilink’s flight QG 963 serving the Jakarta-Pekanbaru route was forced to circle the airport for about 30 minutes before landing. The flight was initially scheduled to land at 7 a.m. local time.
“It was impossible for it to land because the runway was not visible from the air,” Hasturman said.
After 30 minutes of circling, he added, the haze was thinning and the Airbus 330-200 was finally able to land safely at the airport.
Hasturman said that throughout July, haze had disrupted five flights at the airport. Of the five, two were finally redirected to Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, while the other two were delayed and one was forced to circle before landing.
“There is nothing we can do when haze disrupts flights. For safety reasons, it’s better to redirect flights or make them circle while waiting for the haze to become thinner before landing,” he said.
Data at the Pekanbaru branch of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) showed that the Terra and Aqua satellites on Thursday at 5 a.m. local time detected 326 hot spots across Sumatra, 186 of which were in Riau.
In Riau, the hot spots were spread across Pelalawan (60 spots), Indragiri Hulu (54), Indragiri Hilir (45), Siak (11), Dumai (6), Bengkalis (5), Kampar (3) and Kuansing (2).
Outside Riau, the hot spots were detected in South Sumatra (42), Jambi (51), Lampung (8), Bengkulu (6), North Sumatra (3) and West Sumatra (2).
BMKG Pekanbaru head Sugarin said the haze that blanketed the city originated from neighboring regencies.
The haze decreased the air quality. The air is continuously categorized as unhealthy [because of the haze],” he said.
Residents as well as students who entered school after the Ramadhan holidays had to wear masks while doing outdoor activities.
Meanwhile in Jambi, a 63-year-old man named Bakri of Nipah Panjang district, East Tanjungjabung regency, has been detained by the local police for allegedly starting a fire.
The case started when he was told by his employer to clear a two-hectare plot of land on Wednesday. To save time, Bakri burned the land.
Unfortunately, the flames also burned ten oil palms belonging to Rosta Sastra, whose land was next to the land burned by Bakri. Rosta reported the case to the police.
“I didn’t know that it would be like this. I also didn’t know that we were banned from burning land. Had I known, I would not have burned the land,” Bakri said Thursday.
Separately, East Tanjungjabung Police’s detective and crime unit head Adj. Comr. Amos Lubis said that eight people were examined in the case. Yet only Bakri had to undergo further legal procedures.
“From our investigation, only this one person really cleared the land by burning it,” he said.
Bakri is facing Article 187 of the Criminal Code on crime considered to endanger public safety and Law No 18/2004 on plantations. “They carry a penalty of 12 years imprisonment,” he said.
Islands in focus: City to extend school closure over haze frenzy
The Jakarta Post 3 Aug 15;
The Pekanbaru Education Agency in Riau is planning to extend the temporary closure of some schools in the provincial capital to reduce negative health impacts triggered by the haze that has blanketed the city over the past several days.
On Saturday, the agency decided to shut preschools and kindergartens in a number of districts over fear that the haze, which comes from land and forest fires in regions surrounding the city, would make the children prone to respiratory illness. The agency also asked first to third graders in the districts to take a day off school on Saturday.
“It [the closure] will depend on the air condition on Sunday and Monday morning. If it is still not possible [for students to attend school], a follow-up circular [regarding school holidays] will be immediately sent to school headmasters,” agency head Zulpadil said over the weekend.
Although the agency does not specifically impose the policy on students from the fourth to 12th grades, Zulpadil said that school headmasters had been given the authority to shutdown their schools should they experience worsening haze conditions in their respective areas.
