Potential for haze until end-Nov because of El Nino, but aim is to put out majority of fires by mid-Oct: Agency spokesman
Today Online 18 Sep 15;
JAKARTA — Indonesia will take 30 days to bring smouldering forest fires under control, the national disaster management agency said today (Sept 18), as smog from the fires pushes pollution in South-east Asia to record highs.
Indonesia has faced criticism from neighbours and green groups for not doing enough to prevent the fires, which cause millions of dollars worth of damage to health and the environment every year.
“We expect there will be a potential for haze because of the El Nino effect until the end of November, but we are targeting to put out the majority of the fires by mid-October,” agency spokesman Sutopo Nugroho told Reuters.
The region has suffered for years from annual bouts of smog caused by slash-and-burn practices in Indonesia’s islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, but governments have failed to tackle the problem.
Malaysia today announced plans to evacuate 173 of its citizens “badly affected by the haze surrounding Riau province” from provincial capital Pekanbaru, using two C-130 Hercules aircraft.
Indonesia has said it was investigating about 100 companies in the latest crackdown to tackle smog worsened by a prolonged dry season.
The rainy season usually begins in November.
Next week, the authorities will name several companies likely to face sanctions for starting fires, including possible withdrawal of licences, Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told a news conference today.
On an offer of assistance from Singapore, she said the decision whether to accept help or not is a national decision to be made by President Joko Widodo.
Yesterday, she had reportedly said that her country has declined Singapore’s offer, adding that Indonesia is “still trying to handle it ourselves”.
Singapore’s Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen have reached out to their Indonesian counterparts, offering an assistance package that includes a C-130 aircraft for cloud-seeding operations, a Chinook helicopter with a water bucket for aerial fire-fighting, and up to two C-130 aircraft to ferry the Singapore Civil Defence Force fire-fighting assistance team.
Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla had earlier been reported as inviting Singapore to help tackle the haze.
“Singapore is ready to help, so I think, please do, because Singapore also knows a natural disaster can occur anywhere,” Mr Kalla reportedly told Indonesian news outlet Liputan6 on Tuesday at his office in Jakarta.
Today, Mr Kalla said that forest fires in Sumatra is part of natural risk that should be accepted by neighbouring countries.
“Neighbouring countries already enjoy 11 months of clean fresh air from Indonesia, thus if they suffer for the haze in a month, that is also a risk,” he told reporters. He also mentioned that the forest burning in Sumatra is part of “natural disaster”. It also happen in the United States in California forest area, he said.
He also said that currently Indonesia is putting effort to extinguish the fire in Sumatra forest.
“It’s a nature problem. We already trying very hard and spent money (to extinguish the fire), we already deploy almost 20 plane extinguisher for that, but it’s difficult (to handle),” he added.
Indonesia has deployed nearly 3,000 troops and 24 aircraft to help fight the fires. AGENCIES
Rain comes, but haze remains
Rizal Harahap and Syamsul Huda M. Suhari, The Jakarta Post 18 Sep 15;
The rain that has poured over several regions across Sumatra and Kalimantan over the last two days has failed to significantly lower the intensity of the haze that has blanketed the fire-scorched parts of the country. Despite the rain, the haze continues to disrupt the activities and movement of local residents, and has disrupted operations at local airports.
“Haze at destination airports, especially in Pekanbaru, Jambi and Medan, has yet to dissipate significantly, and some flights are still being cancelled,” said Suwarso, head of Hang Nadim Batam International Airport’s general affairs division, in Batam on Thursday as quoted by Antara news agency.
The haze that has blanketed Hang Nadim for the past two weeks has caused a total of almost 100 flights to have been cancelled.
Similarly, state-run airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II’s Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport said that airline companies serving routes to Pekanbaru had rescheduled their flights due to haze from forest and land fires in Sumatra.
In Pontianak, students from state-run senior vocational high school SMKN 5 and state-run Islamic senior high school MAN 2 Pontianak were rushed to Anton Soedjarwo Bhayangkara Hospital on Wednesday after falling unconscious while attending classes.
One of the students, Lady Planeta of SMKN 5 Pontianak, said the haze had been relatively thick when they began class at 8 a.m. Some 20 minutes later, the thick haze started to enter the classrooms, causing the students to faint, one after another.
“We complained of sore throats. We coughed and couldn’t breathe, and then we fainted,” said Lady.
In response to the deteriorating situation, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has repeatedly pledged to take stern legal action against all parties, including forest concession owners, deemed responsible for land and forest fires.
In Pekanbaru, PT Langgam Inti Hibrindo (LIH) general manager Frans Katihokang was arrested by Riau Police’s special crimes detective (Reskrimsus) directorate after being grilled for six hours in relation to the fire on the plantation company’s 533 hectare concession in Pangkalan Gondai subdistrict, Langgam, Pelalawan regency.
Apart from PT LIH, some 10 other plantation companies in Riau are also thought to have been involved in, or to have neglected to properly deal with, fires on their respective concessions.
Meanwhile, at least 20 hectares of protected forest in North Dulamayo, Telaga Biru district, Gorontalo have been razed by fire.
“We’ve had difficulties in extinguishing the fire due to strong winds,” Yosef Talawo, a local forest ranger, said on Thursday.
Yosef said his office monitored the movement of the fire, but he and his fellow fire-fighters were under-resourced, under manned and, at present, unable to overcome such a difficult challenge.
