Jakarta Globe 4 Sep 15;
Jakarta. Six Indonesian provinces have declared a state of emergency as haze from wildfires on Sumatra and Kalimantan continues to blanket entire cities, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said on Friday.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan had all declared haze emergencies.
"There are around 25.6 million Indonesians in Sumatra and Kalimantan who are directly exposed to the haze due to forest fires," the BNPB spokesman said in Jakarta. "They breathe in very unhealthy air, thousands of people are suffering from respiratory tract infections."
Sutopo said that as of Friday morning, no less than 80 percent of Sumatra had been impacted by the smoke to some degree.
"The visibility was less than 500 meters in Pekanbaru and Jambi this morning," he said.
Tri Budiarto, deputy chief for emergency management at BNPB, said that the agency had joined forces with the local administration to build command posts and establish four types of task force in the six provinces.
These four groups would focus on extinguishing fires, law enforcement, educating the public and offering health services to affected communities.
Most of Sumatra blanketed by smoke
Thejakartapost.com 4 Sep 15;
Most regions of Sumatra are currently blanketed by smoke from land and forest fires and the pollution will potentially reach neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.
"From our data this morning, almost all of Sumatra is covered in smoke, with affected regions including South Sumatra, Jambi, West Sumatra, Riau, Medan and Aceh," said head of the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Sugarin on Friday as quoted by Antara news agency.
Sugarin said that only a few areas were relatively free from air pollution, those including Lampung and parts of Bengkulu.
In Pekanbaru, for instance, the smoke was still thick on Friday afternoon and has reached a hazardous level of air pollution and caused visibility to drop to around 700 meters.
The smoke is said to be coming from land and forest fires in South Sumatra, Jambi and Riau, from which smoke is blown by the wind toward the north, increasing the possibility that it will reach neighboring countries.
According to data from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, there were up to 362 hot spots in Sumatra at 5 a.m. on Friday. Most of them were located in South Sumatra, where there were 173 hot spots, followed by Jambi with 148, Riau with 31, and Bangka Belitung with 8. (kes)
Sumatra suffers as smog spreads
Fadli and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post 4 Sep 15;
Haze shrouding Sumatra continues to thicken and spread, disrupting flights and posing a threat to human health on the island.
The smog has been causing major problems at Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, which claims to have suffered losses of Rp 140 million (US$10,000) over the past week as a result of disruptions to flights to and from the mainland.
Hang Nadim’s general division head Suwarso said on Thursday that 35 flights had been either canceled or delayed because of haze since the previous Friday.
“We receive Rp 4 million from every aircraft that lands at the airport, so we’ve lost around Rp 140 million because of the haze,” Suwarso told The Jakarta Post.
The problem, he said, had caused at least five flights from mainland cities such as Jambi, Pekanbaru, Palembang, Lampung and Medan to Hang Nadim to be canceled each day.
In North Sumatra, the management of Kualanamu International Airport reported that haze had caused 20 flight cancellations on Thursday.
Kualanamu duty manager Jasirin said the flights had been canceled because the haze coming from neighboring provinces was very thick, reducing visibility to 800 meters.
“To prevent accidents, we call on airlines not to force themselves to operate in thick haze,” Jasirin said.
Almost all regions in North Sumatra, including Binjai on the border with Aceh, are now covered in haze thought to have drifted from Jambi and Riau provinces.
“All of central Binjai is blanketed in thick haze. It’s very disturbing,” city transportation driver Razman told the Post on Thursday.
Low visibility caused by thick haze has also brought the local airport in Riau to a standstill.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Pekanbaru station reported that Pekanbaru city and Pelalawan regency were suffering exceptionally low visibility of 200 meters as of 7 a.m. on Thursday.
As of Thursday afternoon, only two flights had taken off from Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport (SSK II) in Pekanbaru.
Crowds of passengers began to amass at the airport as Citilink and other airlines announced the cancellation of all their regularflights.
For safety reasons, at least 15 flights from a number of cities across Indonesia destined for SSK II airport were canceled indefinitely. Previously on Wednesday, 14 flights were delayed for over four hours for the same reason.
Smog was similarly blanketing almost the entirety of West Sumatra province on Thursday, moving boy and girl scouts (Pramuka) in Sawahlunto city to take to the streets to distribute pollution masks to passersby after the local administration failed to do so.
“We only have 500 masks to distribute. They go pretty quickly, as many motorcycle taxi drivers ask for one. They’re worried the haze will make them ill,” the deputy chairman of Pramuka’s Sawahlunto branch, Tumpak Abdurrahman, told the Post on Thursday.
- Rizal Harahap in Pekanbaru and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb in Padang contributed to this story.
Fires Rage On in Sumatra's Largest National Park
Jakarta Globe 4 Sep 15;
Jakarta. A massive fire has flared uncontrollably for three days, burning at least 100 hectares of protected forests in Sumatra's largest national park, a local watchdog said.
"We just informed the Bengkulu Disaster Mitigation Agency [BPBD] about three fire hot spots that have yet to be extinguished for the past three days," Nurcholis Sastro, head of the Bengkulu Disaster Risks Activist Community, said on Friday as quoted by news portal Kompas.com.
According to Nurcholis, the agency conceded that they hadn't known about the fires that have been burning at three separated locations at the Kerinci Seblat National Park, which has a total area of 13,791 square kilometers, spanning four provinces: West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra.
Nurcholis said local residents had been using the slash-and-burn method to clear land, which went uncontrolled, causing the inferno.
"We hope the government will react immediately," he added.
Satellite imagery picked up more than 600 fire hot spots across Sumatra, with the provinces of Jambi, Riau and South Sumatra accounting for most of the sightings, Indonesia's weather agency (BMKG) said.
