Indonesia: More airports affected by haze from land fires

Antara 11 Sep 15;

Activity flights to and from the city by Sultan Taha Jambi, Jambi, was canceled due to thick haze with visibility of 500 meters lows. (ANTARA/Wahdi Septiawan)
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - More airports are being affected by the haze in Indonesia as flights continue to be disrupted.

The head of the public communication center at the Ministry of Transportation, J.A. Barata, said in a written statement on Friday that the number of airports affected by the haze from land fires had risen to 21 on Friday from 16 on Thursday.

He said the five airports that were affected by the haze were the airports in Nangah Pinoh (West Kalimantan), Palembang (Sumatra), Pekanbaru (Sumatra) and Balikpapan (Kalimantan).

Other similar airports are in Melak (East Kalimantan), Pangkalan Bun (Central Kalimantan), Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan), Pontianak (West Kalimantan, Jambi (Sumatra), Sampit (Central Kalimantan), Putusibau (West Kalimantan), Samarinda (East Kalimantan), Sintang (West Kalimantan, Ketapang (West Kalimantan), Long Apung (North Kalimantan), Sampir, Muara Teweh and Palangkaraya all in Kalimantan provinces.

"Until today, visibility in Jambi (Sumatra) is still 600 meters. Three general flights plus a hajj flight have been rescheduled, while others have been cancelled," he said.

Among the flights that have been rescheduled are Garuda Indonesias GIA 132/133, serving Jakarta-Jambi-Jakarta, while a Lion Air Jakarta-Jambi flight remained grounded over night.

Barata said cancellations and delays had also been reported at the Syamsuddin Noor Airport in Banjarmasin (Kalimantan). A total of 13 flights at the airport have been delayed and two cancelled.

The Rahadi Usman Airport in Ketapang (Kalimantan) recorded six delays, the Iskandar Airport in Pangkalan Bun five delays and one cancellation, the Tjilik Riwut Airport in Palangkaraya eight delays and three cancellations, the Beringing Muara Airport in Muara Teweh three cancellations, the Haji Asan Airport in Sampit four delays and the Susilo Airport in Sintang two delays and the Pangsuma Airport in Putusibau two delays.

(Reporting by Juwita Trisna Rahayu/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR/A014)

Haze shuts down C. Kalimantan airport for a week
thejakartapost.com 11 Sep 15;

The operator of Beringin Airport in Muara Teweh, Central Kalimantan, has canceled all flights for a week due to a thick haze filling the air over and around the airport.

“There have been no flights since last Friday [Sept. 4] because the haze is getting thicker,” Akhmad Sidik, an officer at Beringin Airport, said on Friday as reported by Antara news agency.

Affected flights included those of Susi Air, which services a route from Muara Teweh to Tjilik Riwut Airport in Palangka Raya three times a week, under normal conditions.

Susi Air was also forced to cancel two other flights servicing Muara Teweh to Balikpapan in East Kalimantan and Muara Teweh to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan.

Chartered airlines that carry the employees of several mining and gas companies have also had to cancel their flights due to the haze.

Meanwhile, Nurdin from the North Barito Transportation, Communication and Information Agency said that the receding water in the Barito River had not affected commercial river transportation.

Currently, speedboats serving Muara Teweh to Buntok in South Barito and to Puruk Cahu in Murung Raya are operating normally, according to Nurdin.

But he warned river transportation operators and passengers to be cautious of the dropping water level in the Barito River. “So far, the water receding has only caused longer travel times for speedboats,” Nurdin added.

Sunardi, the head of Beringin Muara Teweh Meteorology Station said that horizontal visibility measured at 8 a.m. on Friday morning was at 50 to 100 meters and vertical visibility was at 150 feet.

“The thick haze is more or less the same as recent days but the vertical visibility is better. The haze usually decreases during the evening, but still remains thick,” said Sunardi. (nov/bbn)(++++)

Hot spots decrease in Riau
The Jakarta Post 11 Sep 15;

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Pekanbaru, Riau, has stated that the Tera and Aqua satellites have identified a total of 210 hot spots across Sumatra on Thursday, a drop from 283 hotspots the previous day.

The head of BMKB in the Riau provincial capital of Pekanbaru, Sugarin, said that South Sumatra still had the highest number of hot spots, reaching 123 based on monitoring reports at 7 a.m. on Thursday.

According to Sugarin, hot spots were also seen in seven other Sumatran provinces. “The level of confidence for the hot spots is 70 percent,” Sugarin said as quoted by tempo.co.

Hot spots decrease in Riau
thejakartapost.com 10 Sep 15;

Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Pekanbaru, Riau, has stated that the Tera and Aqua satellites have monitored a total of 210 hot spots across Sumatra on Thursday, decreasing from 283 hotspots the previous day.

Head of BMKB in the Riau provincial capital of Pekanbaru said that South Sumatra still had the highest number of hot spots, reaching 123 based on monitoring reports at 7 a.m. on Thursday.

According to Sugarin, hot spots were also seen in seven other Sumatran provinces.

“The level of confidence for the hot spots is 70 percent," Sugarin said as quoted by tempo.co.

He also said that there was a lot of haze in Riau.

“Light rain is expected to occur in the afternoon and in the evening across the north, middle and coastal parts of Riau. The temperature will reach around 31.5 to 33.5 degrees Celsius,” Sugarin said.

Visibility was decreasing due to the haze from the hot spots. However, in Pekanbaru the visibility was gradually improving and is currently around 1500 meters.

Head of Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency Edward Sanger explained to kompas.com that light and moderate rain had poured over some parts of Riau, which made the fires and haze less intense.

He said that a weather modification task force team was cloud seeding to produce rain and had also water bombed the forest fires from helicopters. “If there is haze, it is likely caused by forest fires in other provinces,” he added. (nov/bbn)(++++)

Alarming haze records in Singapore, Malaysia
Nani Afrida and Hans Nicholas Jong, The Jakarta Post 11 Sep 15;

Singapore and Malaysia recorded alarming levels of air pollution on Thursday as the Indonesian government has yet to quell forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Air pollution in Singapore reached its highest level in a year on Thursday as smog from Indonesian forest fires shrouded the island nation in a veil of gray.

The Pollutant Standards Index, Singapore’s main measure of air pollution, hit 187 at 8 p.m., cruising above the official “unhealthy” bandwidth of 100, according to the National Environment Agency.

Anything above 200 is considered “very unhealthy” particularly for young children, the elderly and those with heart and lung diseases.

In 2013, the same three-hour index hit a historic high of 401, way above the “hazardous” mark of 300.

Singapore has issued transboundary haze pollution laws since last year, targeting those responsible for causing such fires if burning results in unhealthy levels of haze,

The PSI level has exceeded 101 since 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to the Singaporean government website, haze.gov.sg.

Several areas in Malaysia have also suffered from poor air quality.

According to readings published on the Malaysian Department of Environment’s (DOE) website, six locations including Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman were rated as unhealthy (100-200) on the API as of 8 p.m. on Thursday.

“According to reports from Kuala Lumpur, moderate haze started to disappear this morning. But, Malaysia said that the haze in Kuala Lumpur did not come from Sumatra or Kalimantan,” Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said on Thursday.

As of Thursday, there were 118 hotspots detected in Sumatra and 1,466 hotspots in Kalimantan.

Jambi administration ordered on Wednesday all schools to close down all activities for the next two days due to thickening haze with the air pollution standard index [ISPU] reaching the hazardous level of 324.

Previously the newly appointed head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Willem Rampangilei said the economic loss caused by the haze could not be dismissed as insignificant. Quoting a 2013 World Bank report, he said that the total financial loss that Riau suffered from the haze amounted to Rp 20 trillion (US$1.4 billion).

He said that, after being sworn in as BNPB head and receiving instructions from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to put an end to the haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan, he stipulated a deadline to finish dealing with the haze within two weeks.

The Indonesian military (TNI) has joined the effort to put out the fires, deploying on Thursday 1,059 military personnel to seek and extinguish hotspots in Sumatran forests.

The military, consisting of personnel from the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, are part of a task force to extinguish wildfires in the forest. They were transported to South Sumatra and Jambi using four military transport planes Hercules C-130 from Halim Perdana Kusuma military airport.

“We still have additional 1,150 personnel as the back up and they are ready to be deployed when needed,” Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo told journalists on the sidelines of military deployment at the military airport.

Gatot said that two battalions of military personnel would be stationed in South Sumatra, while the rest would be in Jambi. They would comb the forest and seek the hotspots. When they find the source of the fires, they could extinguish them.

According to Gatot, besides deploying its personnel directly to the forests, the military could also extinguish the hotspots from the air using water-bombing.

“The military will prioritize forest in three regencies in South Sumatra; Musi Banyuasin, Banyuasin and Ogan Komering Ilir,” the military chief said.

He also asked his men to not hesitate in taking perpetrators to the police, even if the perpetrators were military members.

“We aim to clear the area from haze by the end of this month,” Gatot said.