Indonesia: Haze crisis expands, disrupts education, air travel

Rizal Harahap and Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post 17 Oct 15;

Despite the government’s pledge to make all-out efforts to end the prolonged haze crisis, smoke from land and forest fires has continued to spread across a number of the country’s major islands, disrupting education and air travel.

In Central Kalimantan, the Palangkaraya municipal administration decided on Friday morning to close down local schools after learning that thick haze had increased the concentration of particulate matter (PM10) in the city to 1889.06 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³).

“In line with the policy issued by the city’s education agency, we have asked our students to return home. Schools will be temporarily shut down until Oct. 17,” Hertiani, a teacher at Palangkaraya Catholic Junior High School, said as quoted by Antara news agency on Friday.

Authorities consider air quality “good” if its PM10 concentration stands below 50 µg/m³, “moderate” when the level stands between 50 and 150 µg/m³, “unhealthy” between 150 and 250 µg/m³, “very unhealthy” between 250 and 3500 µg/m³ and “hazardous” when it surpasses 350 µg/m³.

Data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reveals the provincial capital of Palangkaraya is one of the worst-hit cities, along with Pekanbaru in Riau, Palembang in South Sumatra and Jambi.

Since last month, the Palangkaraya municipal administration has given local students at least 25 days off from school to minimize the health impacts of the haze.

“To help students catch up with the teaching curriculum, teachers have given them assignments,” Hertiani said.

Over the past few months, many provinces, including Riau, Jambi, North Sumatra, South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, have been struggling to cope with the impacts of smoke from both man-made and natural land and forest fires.

The ongoing disaster has been exacerbated by this year’s long dry season triggered by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

In Riau, haze thickened again on Friday after the intensity had gradually declined over the past several days. Visibility in the provincial capital of Pekanbaru, for example, dropped to 500 meters.

“In Rengat, indeed, the visibility was recorded at only 10 m as a result of the haze and fog,” BMKG Pekanbaru office spokesperson Slamet Riyadi said on Friday.

In Padang, the West Sumatra Disaster Risk Mitigation Forum (F-PRB) urged the central government to declare a national emergency status for haze, arguing that the move was needed to put an end to the crisis.

“The national emergency status will make it easier for related institutions to take action and to formulate budget policy. The country’s resources will be mobilized to deal with the haze,” said the forum’s coordinator, Khalid Saifullah.

The haze crisis has meanwhile spread to the eastern part of the country.

In Papua, local authorities closed down Mozes Kilangin Airport in Timika, Mimika regency, on Thursday as a result of thick haze that has reduced visibility in the area to only 500m.

“Haze has been visible in Timika since last week but it has been thickening over the past couple of days,” Mimika Transportation Agency head John Rettob said on Friday, adding that the haze might have spread from fires in the south of the island.

The airport authority, according to John, needs a minimum visibility of 1,500m to give an aircraft landing or take-off clearance.

BMKG’s Region V Jayapura office head Sem Padamma, meanwhile, said his office had detected 104 hot spots in southern Papua, with 92 spotted in Merauke regency and the remaining 12 in Mappi regency.

In South Sulawesi, fires have reportedly ravaged the Hasanuddin University (Unhas) educational forest in Cenrana district, Maros regency, since Thursday, for the second time this month.

Maros Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Suyuti said the fires had, as of Friday, burned down some 20 hectares of the forest.


Haze sickens half a million in six provinces in Kalimantan, Sumatra
Tama Salim, The Jakarta Post 17 Oct 15;

The number of people falling ill from deteriorating air quality has jumped to almost 500,000 as fires that have ravaged forest and peat lands in Sumatra and Kalimantan over the past two months continue to affect millions of people.

Health Minister Nila Djuwita Anfasa Moeloek said that as of Friday, the haze had caused 425,377 people from all six affected provinces to suffer from acute respiratory infections (ISPA).

“Our figures point to 425,377 cases of ISPA, although not all of them are being treated [in hospital] for infections,” Nila said after a discussion with leaders of the House of Representatives at the House compound in Central Jakarta, on Friday.

Earlier, respiratory illness as a result of the air pollution claimed the life of one infant while another 19 babies received intensive treatment in Sumatra hospitals.

Additionally, ministry data from last week said that out of a total of 307,358 ISPA cases, there were four fatalities in Riau Islands, one in Jambi and two in South Sumatra.

In response to the emergency, the ministry has prioritized the introduction of preventive methods to curtail the number of patients and those falling sick, such as the distribution of protective masks to prevent people from inhaling soot from the air.

Nila also urged local residents in regions with high levels of air pollution to stay indoors, or to wear masks or other protective gear while outdoors. “It all depends on the level of the ISPU [air pollution standard index]; if it exceeds 300 µg/m³ then it becomes quite bad because there are too many airborne particles. That’s why we urge the public to refrain from leaving [their homes],” Nila said.

Nila also recommended that infants and children, pregnant women and the elderly with a high risk of illness should completely avoid exposure to the air pollution.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported on Friday that a number of major cities in Sumatra and Kalimantan still had highly unhealthy levels of particulate matter (PM10) stemming from the smoke from unremitting fires.

Jambi, Palembang in South Sumatra and Pontianak in West Kalimantan, had the worst air quality in the country after PM10 levels of over 320 µg/m³ were measured in all three cities on Friday afternoon.

According to the government’s guidelines, air quality is considered “healthy” if its PM10 level is below 50 µg/m³, “moderate” when the level is between 50 and 150 µg/m³, “unhealthy” between 150 and 350 µg/m³, “very unhealthy” between 350 and 420 µg/m³ and “dangerous” when it surpasses 420 µg/m³.

Over the past few months, many regions in Indonesia, including Riau, Jambi, North Sumatra, South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, have been struggling to cope with the impact of smoke produced by both man-made and natural land and forest fires.

The ongoing disaster has been exacerbated by this year’s long dry season, triggered by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

The Health Ministry had already introduced various health-related mitigation efforts, such as the distribution of over 30 tons of supplies and disaster relief, comprising masks, rations, medicine and oxygen tanks, to the eight provinces most affected by the smog.

On Friday, in addition to Nila, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut B. Pandjaitan and Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar also briefed lawmakers on the government’s pollution-mitigation efforts.

Responding to the briefing, House speaker Setya Novanto applauded the government’s efforts thus far.

“I hope that there won’t be any more fatalities [from the smog] — all the work currently being done is for the benefit of the people,” Setya said on Friday.


Biggest haze operation yet launched
Hans Nicholas Jong and Tama Salim, The Jakarta Post 17 Oct 15;

The government launched on Friday its biggest multinational effort on forest fire mitigation yet, involving reinforcement from three neighboring countries, as haze continues to blanket much of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said that a total of 32 aircraft had been deployed to put out the fires, consisting of 21 helicopters and seven fixed-wing water bombing and four cloud-seeding airplanes, along with 22,146 personnel from the military, police and other government agencies.

“This is the biggest haze emergency operation that the Indonesian government has ever carried out,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Friday.

Of the 32 aircraft, six were from Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. Russia is expected to join the multinational effort by sending two aircraft capable of carrying 12 tons of water.

The Japanese government has also contributed to the mitigation effort.

On Friday, Japanese Ambassador Yasuaki Tanizaki met with Deputy Foreign Minister AM Fachir to discuss details of the joint effort.

“Japan has decided to send around 2 tons of special chemicals for the mitigation of the haze crisis in Indonesia,” Tanizaki said in a statement on Friday.

Japan vowed to ship 100 20-liter bottles of Miracle Foam a+, a flame-retardant chemical, to Palembang, South Sumatra, over the weekend. Tanizaki said that Japan would also send a specialist from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to help with fire-extinguishing efforts.

The multinational operation was launched as the fires continued to worsen in some parts of the country.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that the number of hot spots had again risen on Friday.

“Today it’s worsening again. The number of hot spots reached 1,005 on Oct. 16 at 7 a.m.,” he said.

Haze was also reported in Papua on Friday. Officials had closed Mozes Kilangin airport in Timika for two days following haze coming from the south of Papua, officials said on Friday.

John Rettob, transportation and information office chief, said that visibility at the airport was 500 meters, while the minimum required by the Transportation Ministry is 1,500 m.

Sutopo said that it would not be an easy task to extinguish fires in such a massive number of hot spots.

“Especially on dry peatland, where fires often smolder underground,” he said.

He attributed the increasing number of hot spots to continued burning practices.

The annual forest fires have drawn ire from neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, which have been forced to shut down schools and airports.

The Indonesian government is taking several measures to ensure that haze does not return next year.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry is currently drafting a document that will serve as a guideline for all stakeholders to implement sustainable land and forestry management and cultivation.

“[The document will be ready] by the end of this month or early November, before the wet season starts,” the ministry’s secretary-general Bambang Hendroyono said on Friday.

The document will consist of guidelines for damage recovery after land and forest fires, managing burning forest areas, identifying damage, managing peatland and restoring ecosystems. To complement the guidelines, the government will focus on increasing the role of local people, described by Bambang as the key to sustainable forest governance.

“The designation of customary forests, village forests and community forests will be a solution when areas keep burning,” he said.