Indonesia: Hot spots reappear as rainy season begins

The Jakarta Post 28 Dec 15;

PEKANBARU: The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Pekanbaru station in Riau has reported the emergence of new hot spots indicating land or forest fires across the province over the past few days, despite the rainy season that has been taking place during the past month.

Station spokesperson Slamet Riyadi on Sunday said that the Terra Aqua satellite had detected 10 hot spots in Riau on Friday and Saturday and another one on Sunday.

“Most of the hot spots were found in areas along the [province’s] east coast,” he said, adding that the incident could have been triggered by a weather anomaly in several areas within the province.

Earlier this year, many regions in the country, including Riau, the nation’s largest oil-producing region, had struggled for months to reduce the impacts of haze pollution triggered by massive land and forest fires.