Indonesia: Haze from Sumatra, Kalimantan affects Jakarta

Antara 25 Oct 15;

Jakarta (ANTARA News)- The haze emanating from the forest fires that have hit the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, has affected Jakarta, according to National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

"Parts of Jakarta has been shrouded by thin haze coming from Sumatra and Kalimantan," Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman of the BNPB, said here Sunday.

The haze has also affected Banten, West Java, parts of East Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara, he added.

A monitoring by the Himawari satellite on Sunday (Oct. 25) at 8:30 a.m. local time, showed that the smoke has spread to Jakarta and other provinces.

On Saturday (Oct. 24), the Himawari satellite detected thin haze over Java Sea and parts of Jakarta.

A joint task force is still doing its utmost to extinguish forest, peatland and plantation fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan particularly.

"Aerial operations by using water bombings are being carried out continuously, and so land operations," he noted.

So far, more than 43 million people on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan have been exposed to the haze.

Earlier, the haze from Sumatra and Kalimantan has affected neighboring countries mainly Singapore, and parts of Malaysia and Thailand.

Haze continues to spread throughout archipelago
Hans Nicholas Jong, The Jakarta Post 25 Oct 15;

As mitigation efforts have yielded minimal results, haze from raging wildfires in Indonesia continues to spread, with almost all major islands in the archipelago affected by the hazardous smoke, some of which has made it as far as the Philippines.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said on Saturday the haze had caused the air quality in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore to deteriorate.

“The haze from Sumatra and Kalimantan continues to spread,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) earlier reported that the Himawari satellite showed “a thin haze blanketing the Java Sea and parts of Jakarta”.

The report was quickly dispelled by the BMKG, saying the haze did not come from land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, it was just regular haze.

“Today, Java is still relatively safe [from the haze],” BMKG spokesman Fachri Radjab said.

Another BMKG spokesman, Harry Tirto Djatmiko, said haze from land and forest fires usually hovered between altitudes of 3,000 and 5,000 meters. “For altitudes up until 3,000m, it’s just regular haze,” he said, explaining the characteristic of the haze in Jakarta.

While Java continues to be free from haze, almost all major islands in Indonesia have been affected, with Sulawesi being the latest casualty.

BMKG Southeast Sulawesi chapter in Kendari said haze from the southern part of Papua had traveled to some parts of the province, blanketing Kendari, Konawe, Bombana North Konawe, South Konawe, Baubau, Buton and Muna.

“Based on Himawari satellite images on Friday, the haze only covered Kendari and parts of South Konawe. But today, almost all of Southeast Sulawesi has been affected by the haze from Papua,” BMKG Kendari spokesman Aris Yunatas said.

The haze has also disrupted flights across the Philippines, forcing carriers to cancel flights, close airports and ground small aircraft.

In separate advisories, Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific said they had not been flying to Cotabato city in the southern island of Mindanao since Oct. 17.

This week, Cebu Pacific also cancelled two flights to General Santos city, also in Mindanao, on Thursday. On Friday, both airlines canceled flights to a third city, Dumaguete, in the central Philippines.

Cotabato, General Santos and Dumaguete are gateways to central and southern regions in the Philippines that are home to at least 10 million.

At least eight haze-affected airports, meanwhile, have grounded planes without instruments that will allow pilots to land and takeoff in low to near-zero visibility.

These include Clark airport, in the main island of Luzon, just two hours north of the capital Manila.

The others are in Cotabato, Davao, Laguindingan, Tambler and Zamboanga in Mindanao, and Mactan and Busuanga in central Philippines.

Thick layers of greyish clouds consistent with haze have been blanketing large parts of Mindanao and central Philippines this month.

Besides disrupting flights, the haze has put the lives of many people at risk, with more than 500,000 people suffering from respiratory problems due to the haze in six provinces in Indonesia.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Friday ordered an immediate evacuation of babies, children and people vulnerable to worsening air quality.

To start the evacuation efforts, five ministers, including Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan and Health Minister Nila F Moeloek, flew to South Kalimantan.

Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani was not among the entourage, despite her position as the coordinator of several ministries in charge of the evacuation, such as the Social Ministry and the Health Ministry.


BPBD Tells Jakarta Residents to Prepare for Haze
Tempo 25 Oct 15;

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Denny Wahyu Haryanto has urged Jakarta residents to be prepared to face haze coming from Sumatra.

"I have also instructed hospitals to stand by,” he said on Sunday (25/10).

Although haze has reportedly reached Jakarta, The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has not officially announced it.

"We’re still coordinating with them (BMKG) first to confirm this matter,” Denny said, adding that haze that reached Jakarta might not be from forest fires in Sumatra.

Previously, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported that haze from Sumatra was detected to have reached Jakarta.

"Some parts of Jakarta have been covered with thin haze,” said BNPB Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.


Air Quality in Seven Cities Hit Dangerous Level
Tempo 25 Oct 15;

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) recorded at least seven cities and regions are having air quality that reaches dangerous level due to haze. These include Pekanbaru (618.12), Jambi (592.74), Palembang (591.33), and Palangkaraya (1,347.68), among others.

“This what makes 503 thousand people suffer ISPA (acute respiratory infection),” BNPB Data Chief Sutopo Nugroho told Tempo on Saturday, October 24.

Other regions such as Pontianak, Banjarbaru and Samarinda where the index hits 81.73, 81.67 and 118 each, are categorized being in medium level.

The haze also reduces visibility in the affected areas. in Pekanbaru, for example, visibility is only 300 meters. while in Padang, Jambi and Palembang, the visibility reaches 1,000 meters, 600 meters and 700 meters each.

In Kalimantan, Palangkaraya sees worst visibility up to only 100 meters while in Ketapang it is 400 meters.

Terra & Aqua images show there are 224 hot spots across regions in Sumatra mostly in South Sumatra (199 spots). More hotspots are detected in Kalimantan amounting 1,306 hot spots in total. Central Kalimantan has the most hot spots amounting to 697 spots.

BNPB and TNI continue to deploy thousands of joint personnel and dozens of aircraft in a bid to extinguish the hot spots.

AVIT HIDAYAT


Haze Over Java Sea May Be Pollution: Forestry Ministry
Tempo 26 Oct 15;

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-The Head of Public Relations department of the Environment and Forestry Ministry, Eka W. Soegiri, said that thin haze covering Java Sea and some parts of Jakarta are probably the result of air pollution in Jakarta, not the haze spread from the fire in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

“Based on the wind direction, the haze of fire goes north, it’s not supposed to reach Java Island,” he said on the phone to Tempo on Sunday, October 25.

According to Eka, there hasn’t been any direct confirmation from Indonesia Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG) about the origin of thin haze around Jakarta. The haze is claimed to be the combination of high pollution in Jakarta and the current temperature.

“Maybe the haze is the result of rotated pollution. We could see Mt. Salak from the airplane which about to land in Jakarta, now we can’t.”

Eka added, haze movement in Sumatra and Kalimantan goes north and west. It started to have the impact in Aceh and North Sumatra, as on Sunday morning the haze blocked the view and shut down Kualanamu Airport in Medan.

YOHANES PASKALIS


From Aceh to Papua, Fires Blaze a Hazy Trail
Jakarta Globe 26 Oct 15;

Jakarta. The worst forest fires in living memory continue to generate huge amounts of health-threatening smoke throughout Indonesia, with winds spreading the haze to areas previously untouched by the problem.

The national weather agency, or BMKG, reported on Sunday that three-quarters of Indonesian territory was affected to varying degrees by the haze, including the capital Jakarta, with fires burning out of control across hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest in Sumatra and Kalimantan – the heartland of Indonesia’s palm oil industry – as well as in the relatively untouched forests of Sulawesi and Papua, where the government has massive ambitions of clearing more space for farmland.

The only areas not affected by the haze as of Sunday, according to the BMKG, were Yogyakarta, Central Java, parts of East Java, East Nusa Tenggara and the northern part of Papua.

Sumatra

The island of Sumatra continues to be the hardest hit by the fires there, particularly in the province of Riau, where oil palm planters are accused of slash-and-burn clearing of ostensibly protected peat forests.

The haze there has spread north, as far as Aceh province, and affected flights at Kualanamu airport outside Medan, North Sumatra.

Thirty flights were cancelled on Sunday as a result of poor visibility caused by the haze, and as of Monday morning airport authorities had still not permitted any flights to take off or land there. Schools in Medan have been ordered closed until at least Thursday.

In Aceh, flights have also been cancelled to and from Banda Aceh’s Sultan Iskandar Muda airport, with visibility through the weekend and Monday no higher than 800 meters. Airport authorities say they require visibility of at least 2,000 meters to ensure flight safety.

The haze has also forced residents of Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar district to remain indoors much of the time. Air pollution indexes in both regions have remained at unsafe levels all weekend.

In Jambi, another province devastated by forest fires, the index is now in hazardous territory, having already been declared unsafe more than three months ago. Local authorities said the index “improved” on Monday to around 400 – down from an apocalyptic 600 over the weekend. The “safe” range is 0 to 50; anything over 200 is considered “very unhealthy,” and over 300 “hazardous.” Visibility there is down to just 200 meters, and schools remain closed as of Monday.

In Bengkulu province, south of Riau, visibility was down to a myopic 10 meters on Monday morning in two districts and 50 meters in a third, while in seven of the remaining districts it was at 200 meters. Local authorities have advised residents not to go outdoors unless absolutely necessary.

Kalimantan

The haze continues to choke large areas of Kalimantan, with officials warning there is little prospect of quelling the forest fires before the expected start of rains in late November.

Some 43 million people have been affected by haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan alone, according to the BMKG, and on Saturday the Navy sent a frigate to evacuate residents from hard-hit areas around Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.

In Pontianak, West Kalimantan, long-suffering residents received a temporary respite from the haze when rains fell briefly last Thursday and Friday, but by the weekend the haze was back in force. The air quality in the city on Monday morning was “very unhealthy” at more than 260.

Sulawesi/Maluku

On the island of Sulawesi, until recently relatively untouched by industrial-scale plantations, fires set to clear forests for farmland have destroyed vast tracts of forest and generated more haze.

Flights were cancelled or postponed throughout the weekend to and from Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado, North Sulawesi. Fires in the province have razed more than 18,000 hectares of forest and counting, officials say.

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, more than 40 flights were delayed or cancelled on Sunday at Sultan Hasanuddin airport because of the haze. The province accounted for 151 of the 800 fire hot spots detected by satellite across Sulawesi over the weekend.

In North Maluku, part of the famed “Spice Islands” archipelago, the military is helping fight forest fires that have flared up there. Officials said they had managed to put out two major blazes there on North Halmahera Island over the weekend, but continue to battle an undisclosed number of other fires spread across the region. There were more than 40 hot spots detected across North Maluku over the weekend.

A screengrab of the fire hot spot map taken from the BNPB website. (JG Screengrab) A screengrab of the fire hot spot map taken from the BNPB website. (JG Screengrab)
Papua

The Papua region, Indonesia’s half of the island of New Guinea, is home to the largest unspoiled tract of forest in the country, but fires there are threatening to turn it into another victim of the oil palm monoculture curse.

Residents and soldiers worked throughout the weekend to put out a blaze burning since last week in the heavily forest foothills just outside Jayapura, the Papua provincial capital.

In the southern Mappi district, haze from forest fires there forced the closure of the local Air Force base for a fifth straight day on Saturday. The haze eased slightly by Sunday to allow the resumption of military flights.

Jakarta

In the nation’s capital, residents awoke to a thin cloak of haze shrouding the Jakarta skyline. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said the haze was only temporary and would soon dissipate with the wind. He added the air quality was as good as could be expected for Jakarta, and that the particles in the haze posed much less of a health risk than the daily dose of exhaust fumes from the vehicles clogging the city’s streets.


Int’l bike competition canceled due to haze
thejakartapost.com 26 Oct 15;

An international mountain bike competition, the Asia Pacific Mountain Bike Challenge (APMBC), which was set to be held in Lubuklinggau, Bengkulu, at the end of November, has been canceled due to thick smoke currently blanketing the city.

APMBC 2015 organizing committee chairman Leonardi Sohe said the international competition had been planned since 2014 and all Asia Pacific countries had been invited to attend the event. As of today, 100 athletes from 18 countries, such as Canada, Germany, India, Nepal and Spain, had registered to participate in the event.

Leonardi said that in 2013, a similar competition was held in Bukit Sulap, Lubuklinggau, and it was quite successful. But due to the ongoing haze disaster, several athletes registered for this year’s competition had withdrawn their participation, he said.

Lubuklinggau regional secretary Parigan Syahrin said the cancellation of the APMBC was due to several reasons, but mainly the haze. He said participants of the event doubted that the competition could be safely held amid the haze problem that has affected the area for several months.

Parigan said with the current situation, it would be difficult for the athletes to arrive in Lubuklinggau timely as the haze had caused flight delays and cancellations almost every day due. The health impacts of the haze were also a great concern. There were worries that the athletes would not be able to compete in an area heavily blanketed with smoke.

APMBC is one of supporting activities of the Visit Lubuklinggau 2015 program being held to address concerns that Lubuklinggau has received poor attention from both national and international communities.

“As part of our efforts, we cooperated with the Indonesian Cycling Association (ISSI) and proposed a request permit to the Asian Cycling Federation to hold APMBC 2015 in Lubuklinggau so that the city could attract the world’s attention,” said Parigan.

The National Disaster Management Body (BNPB) said on Sunday smoke that had seriously affected many parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, disrupting transportation and causing health problems in the area, and had now started to spread to Java.

“Based on results of the Himawari satellite, the thin haze has started to cover the air above the Java Sea and is now heading to Jakarta,” the head of BNPB’s information data center Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Sunday as reported by tempo.co.

In Bandung, airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II had to delay flights from Husein Sastranegara Airport on Sunday as visibility dropped to 3,000 meters from the safe condition of 3,900 m.

Angkasa Pura II spokesman Mabruri said that until 11 a.m., the airport authority had to delay five flights from Husein Sastranegara Airport, while six planes scheduled to land in the airport were redirected to Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten. (ags/ebf)

Life goes on as normal in haze-hit city
Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, The Straits Times AsiaOne 26 Oct 15;

Palangkaraya, which has been affected by the densest smoke from peatland fires in recent months, is on the verge of a mass evacuation.

However, people living in the capital of Central Kalimantan did not seem to care as most went about their normal lives, doing what they usually do on a Sunday morning.

Yesterday, many were at Bundaran Besar, or big roundabout in English, the city's most popular weekend spot, for their morning stroll.

Youngsters were seen out in groups jogging, cycling, in-line skating and playing football, mostly without wearing any masks to protect them from the haze.

This, even though the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) was hovering above 1,500 for most of the day.

The scene of normalcy in the midst of the toxic haze, however, belies the mobilisation under way outside the city of more than 220,000 people, where Indonesia's Social Affairs Minister Kofifah Indar Parawansa was frenetically overseeing the setting up of emergency shelters in the event the haze renders the city unliveable.

Palangkaraya, and the smaller towns and villages around it, is the worst hit among the places in Indonesia affected by the haze.

The PSI there regularly soars into four-digit levels. Yesterday, air pollution peaked at 1,682, still within the "hazardous" zone but a far cry from the more than 2,400 PSI it reached on Saturday.

As of 5pm, the PSI was 518. In Indonesia, any index reading above 350 is considered hazardous.

The central government is racing against time to build emergency shelters. There is concern that the peatland fires, raging unabated due to the dry spell, will worsen conditions described by National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho as a "crime against humanity of extraordinary proportions".

Mr Farid Wajdi, an official with the Social Affairs Department, said that as of yesterday, six shelters equipped with air purifiers and air-conditioners had been set up.

One of them is located in a 350 sq m facility that used to house the department's Trauma and Protection Centre in Palangkaraya. The centre has the capacity to accommodate up to 40 people, and an additional 20 in a tent put up in its front yard, said Mr Farid.

Two other shelters are at the Palangkaraya State Hospital and the Palangkaraya Christian University.

"The number will increase in the days ahead," he said.

At a shelter in Rimbawan, a town in Palangkaraya, 184 people were given 15 minutes to breathe with an oxygen tank on Saturday - more than double the number of people the previous day.

The building is owned by the Central Kalimantan Forestry Department, and the oxygen treatment is conducted by volunteers from the local Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups.

Dr Susilo Sumitro, who helps at a shelter in Rajawali, also in Palangkaraya, said he treated 18 patients on Saturday, and expects the number to increase as more people become aware of the shelters.

Jakarta has said priority for the evacuation and shelters will go to babies and children, but Dr Susilo said he will treat anyone in need.

"We allow babies to stay for up to three days but, for special cases, they can stay longer," he added. "And while we tell people we are supposed to focus on infants and kids under five years old, if adults come, we cannot reject them."

The government had earlier announced that it will evacuate babies and children from their homes in parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, if the haze worsens. On Friday, six navy ships were on high alert off the waters of the two regions to receive the evacuees.

A problem emergency workers will have to deal with during the operation would be convincing people to leave their homes for shelters farther south in Banjarmasin, or for the ships to live at sea till the haze clears. Some do not want to leave their loved ones behind, while others were worried about losing their jobs.

When asked what she thought about being evacuated to South Kalimantan, which is a five-hour drive from Palangkaraya, 55-year-old Evina Trikapatini, who works for the Palangkaraya land agency, said: "I would want to, but my boss would have to give permission first."

Ms Ratu Yulidia, a 21-year-old travel agent, said: "I would want to be evacuated, but my boss has to give me permission, which is impossible because I am now very busy."

Some like 18-year-old Zaini told The Straits Times yesterday that he prefers not to leave Palangkaraya despite the toxic air.

The high school student's school was closed - like many others across Kalimantan and Sumatra to keep students indoors - but Zaini was out playing football with his friends at Bundaran Besar.

He said: "I would not want to go to Banjarmasin. I still like it here."


Haze from forest fires arrives in Jakarta
Corry Elyda, The Jakarta Post 26 Oct 15;

The severe and prolonged haze from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan has reached the capital city with thin smoke covering the sky above Jakarta, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has reported.

BPNP spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a press release on Sunday that the haze originating from fires in peat land and plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan had been spreading widely.

“According to monitoring by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s [BMKG] Himawari satellite on Sunday morning, the haze has covered three-quarters of Indonesia,” he said.

Sutopo said the thin haze had actually been covering Jakarta skies since Friday. “Soft particles of haze floated around at the height of 1,000 to 3,000 meters,” he said.

He added that the haze looked thicker in the morning because it was mixed with fog and water vapor.

“However, residents do not need to worry about the thin haze because it is temporary, and [its presence in Jakarta] depends on the direction and the speed of wind, which changes rapidly,” he said.

Sutopo emphasized that air quality in Jakarta is still normal. “The pollution from motorized vehicles is actually more dangerous for residents’ health,” he said.

Muhammad Tahir, a 45-year-old fisherman in Kalibaru, North Jakarta, said that he felt that the weather out on the ocean had been changing in the last few days. “The fog in the morning is thicker and visibility is lower at night,” he said.

Tahir said he thought that it was because of haze from Riau. “However, none of my colleagues complain about it as we usually look for fish not far from the land, only two to three miles from the shore,” he said.

Tahir said, however, that he was afraid that the conditions could get worse. “We are already afraid to sail at night, as many of us have been hit by ships,” he said.

He added that it was because visibility was low, while traditional fishermen only used torches to signal big ships. “They usually cannot see us. It will get worse if we are covered with haze like our fishermen friends in Riau who have stopped sailing,” he said.

Tahir said he hoped the central government could take immediate steps to stop the fires, so casualties could be minimized.

Suryanto, a 33-year-old participant in the Mandiri Jakarta Marathon on Sunday, said he did not realize that the haze from Kalimantan and Sumatra could travel to Jakarta.

“I thought it was only cloudy. I did not know it could reach this city,” he said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Suryanto, who brought his child to the competition, said that he did not feel out of the ordinary while he was running.

According to Sutopo of the BNPB, visibility in particular places such as Padang in West Sumatra, Palembang in South Sumatra and Ketapang in West Kalimantan is only 200 meters.

He said that haze from hot spots was still high. The Terra and Aqua satellites recorded that there were still 1,187 hot spots in Indonesia on Sunday morning.

“It has been almost two months now that residents in Riau, Jambi and Palangkaraya have been trapped in hazardous haze,” he said.

The central government is now preparing to evacuate residents in the worst hit provinces including Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan.