Indonesia: Fire team stays alert over hot spots in West Kalimantan

thejakartapost.com 2 Nov 15;

The commander of the land and forest fire control task force in West Kalimantan, Christiandy Sanjaya, said it would continue to stay on guard to prevent hot spots from springing up again in the province.

“From the results of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s [BMKG] monitoring via NOAA and Modis satellites, no hot spot has been found in West Kalimantan today. However, we will continue to carry out monitoring so that hot spots will not appear again,” said Christiandy, who is also the deputy West Kalimantan governor, as quoted by Antara in Pontianak on Sunday.

The deputy governor said he was grateful that the rain fell evenly in areas across West Kalimantan, reducing the smoky haze that had caused the province’s residents to suffer from respiratory illnesses.

Christiandy admitted that the West Kalimantan administration was overwhelmed with problems caused by the haze disaster in the province. However, he said he was grateful that the problems had been resolved gradually, thanks to the hard work of the task force.

“People from all religious backgrounds had held mass prayers asking for rain and now rain has fallen in West Kalimantan,” he said.

Although the BMKG had reported no more hot spots, Christiandy said the task force has not yet been disbanded and would continue to monitor developments in the field.

He said it was difficult for the task force to tackle fires in West Kalimantan even if it used water bombing, as most of the fires occurred in peat lands and dry peat burned easily.

“After spraying water on the burned land, we’ll see that the fire seems to be fully extinguished. In fact, the embers from the land fires will be absorbed into the soil and they will ignite again once the surface soil dries,” he said.

That was why, Christiandy said, no West Kalimantan residents should carry out any land burning. “They themselves will suffer losses from the fires. Not only their health will be affected, their economic activities will be disrupted as well. We have to learn from what we have experienced,” said Christiandy. (ebf)


Activist Blames Former Forestry Minister for Haze Crisis
Jakarta Globe 1 Nov 15;

Jakarta. A leading anti-haze activist has accused the chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly of allowing corporations to burn forests and causing the haze crisis.

Zulkifli Hasan, former Forestry Minister from 2009 to 2014 under president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration, allegedly granted permission to various corporations to burn over 1.3 million hectares of forest areas to be used for plantations. The finding is based on ministerial data from 2010 to 2013.

“All of the permissions had been signed by Zulkifli Hasan who, at that period of time, was serving as the Forestry Minister in the [Second] United Indonesia Cabinet,” Syahrul Fitra, an activist, said on Saturday, as quoted by tempo.co.

Syahrul, organizer of the #MelawanAsap (#FightHaze) campaign through the online petition platform change.org, has called on law enforcers to investigate and punish all officials allegedly responsible for the months-long disaster.

“Don't let this disaster continue repeating every year without anyone being responsible for it,” he said, while also urging the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to investigate possible graft related to the granting of permission.

Syahrul's online petition was launched on Friday and has so far attracted 6,355 supporters.

“When I was still at the office, I did not do it. If they want me [legally processed], I will face it,” Zulkifli Hasan, also the National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman, said on Saturday.

Over 2 million hectares of forest area across Indonesia has been reduced to ash in the past five months, according to National Space and Aviation Agency (Lapan) data. The final figure is expected to grow.


Peatland restoration prevents forest fires: VP Kalla
Antara 1 Nov 15;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla said peat land restoration in several islands of Indonesia can prevent forest fires that can cause haze disaster.

"The most important thing to prevent haze disaster is peat land restoration. The effort is needed to be done because burnt peat land creates more smokes than perennials forest," Kalla said here on Sunday.

The government will discuss peat land restoration efforts with some experts to achieve a national agreement on peat land management.

He added, Indonesia will also conduct international conference on peat land management as a prevention of haze disaster.

Kalla said Indonesia need to utilize appropriate technology to manage peat land.

"The conference is being prepared by Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan as well as Environment and Forestry Ministry. The conference is important to be held to achieve national agreement on peat land management," Kalla said.

Additionally, Kalla said haze disaster also could potentially trigger long term illnesses.

"The haze inhaled by children can potentially trigger long term illnesses. Thus we want to solve haze disaster through peat land restoration," the Vice President said.

The government have taken various efforts to extinguish forest fires such as by deploying thousands of soldiers to conventionally extinguish fires by spraying waters to the hotspots and create channel partition.

Additionally, the government also conducts weather modification by pouring salts or sodium chloride to some clouds that have water vapor to trigger rain.

Kalla has initiated an Istisqa prayer as an Islamic effort to ask for rain in some areas in Indonesia.

(Reported by Bayu Prasetyo/Uu.H-YH)


Rare clear sunrise for Kalimantan resident
Francis Chan and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Straits Times AsiaOne 1 Nov 15'

Palang karaya resident Haulani Bakri could not believe his eyes when he saw the sun shining over his hometown yesterday morning. It was the first time in almost three months that the 61-year-old caught a sunrise in the capital city of Central Kalimantan.

The haze from forest and peatland fires had shrouded almost all of the island for months, often sending air pollution levels off the charts.

The people in the province have now enjoyed two consecutive days of clear skies after it rained for most of the week.

"The conditions improved after it started to rain," Mr Haulani, who makes and sells aluminium cupboards for a living, told The Sunday Times yesterday. "In the last few months, we sometimes even had to turn on the lights in the afternoon."

The city's Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) reading, the gauge of air quality, was as low as 75 yesterday but peaked at 220 in the evening.

Still, it was a vast improvement on the four-digit PSI levels most of Central Kalimantan had experienced just days ago.

Kalimantan and Sumatra islands are the worst-hit this year. The two regions saw 19 deaths from haze related illnesses and more than half a million people treated for acute lung infections. Almost 2.1 million ha of land, including forests and peatland, in Indonesia have been ravaged by the fires.

However, the heavy downpour over the two regions, starting from last Tuesday, has managed to provide much-needed relief to residents and emergency workers who have been working day and night either fighting fires or attending to people affected by the haze.

Tjilik Riwut Airportwasfully operational yesterday. Flights to and from the airport in Palangkaraya had been grounded or re-directed due to low visibility since the crisis started in August.

The capital city of Central Kalimantan is the last stop on President Joko Widodo's trip to haze-hit provinces to take stock of the situation.

He has visited different areas in the cities of Palembang and Jambi in Sumatra since his return from his visit to the United States last Thursday with First Lady Iriana.

Yesterday, he arrived in Pahandut, a residential estate in Palangkaraya, to find out how residents have been coping with the crisis.

He also visited a state-run primary school. Most people put on broad smiles for the President as he walked though the town.

He later went to Pulang Pisau, just outside the city, to inspect the blocking-canals he had ordered to be built around plantations to retain moisture and prevent fires from spreading.

"A month ago, when we came here, there was no water,so the peatland caught fire easily, but now the water from these canals will always be here," he said. He added that the blocking-canals run all the way to the nearby Kahayan River, which supplies the water. "We will build these (blocking-canals) in all the regencies in every fire-prone province in Indonesia. We will keep on building them even when it rains."

Although conditions have improved significantly, Indonesia is ramping up efforts to induce rain to fully douse the hot spots.

Many in Palang karaya are trying to pick up the pieces and move on.

Those who run businesses like Mr Haulani, who said sales fell by half during the haze crisis, are hoping that customers will return.

Mr Windu Sukmono, 30, who runs a laundry business, was more fortunate. He said there was steady demand for his service. But he, too, is praying that the clear skies and fresh air are here to stay. "Maybe this time it is for good."

Meanwhile, Singapore continued to enjoy clear skies yesterday, with the 24-hour PSI reading at 9pm at 47 to 56 (good to moderate), and the three-hour PSI reading at 63.