Sukarli Antara 27 Aug 18;
Military and police personnel in South Kalimantan extinguished residual burning embers on the land in the Damar Banjarbaru Guntung village, South Kalimantan Province. (ANTARA Photo/Herry Murdy Hermawan)
Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - The people of South Kalimantan hope that rain would fall again to send away haze of smokes that begin to blanket some areas in the province.
The people in Banjarmasin and Banjarbaru and surrounding areas breathed with relief after rainfall for two hours clearing the air from haze .
Three days earlier, smokes from forest and bush fires blanketed a large area in South Kalimantan causing inconvenience in 13 district areas especially in rural areas.
In Banjarmasin, the city of a thousand rivers, the smell of burnt wood enter the houses causing breathing difficulty.
At Jalan Trikora of Banjarbaru the cloud was still thick on Sunday limiting vision not far from 500 meter, and motorists have to wear masker.
Forest and bush fires hit 13 districts areas since January, 2018 ravaging 1,000 hectares of tropical forests and plantation areas.
Fires destroyed 266.1 hectares of forests and plantations in the districts of Banjarbaru, 259 hectares in Tanah Laut (Tala), 182 hectares in Banjar, 116 hectares in Hulu Sungai Selatan , 95 hectares in Tapin, and 34.5 hectares in Tanah Bumbu (Tanbu); 4.25 hectares in Kota Banjarmasin, 4.25 hectares in Hulu Sungai Tengah, 4.3 hectares in Barito Kuala (Batola), 5 hectares in Kotabaru , 10 hectares in Balangan, 11.5 hectares in Hulu Sungai Utara (HSU) and 13.5 hectares in Tabalong.
Earlier this month in West Kalimantan smokes have forced the City Administration of Pontianak, the provincial city, to close schools for several days.
Smokes from forest fires are feared to cause health hazard, the city Mayor Sutarmidji said here on Monday, adding the smokes were getting thicker causing breathing difficulty.
A school teacher Yudi in the city said the smokes caused loss of concentration of the students.
"The impact is worse in the past week . Everybody has to wear masker when they are out on the street," Yudi said.
Forest fires have been a problem almost every year in Kalimantan during dry season.
In South Sumatra, especially around the provincial city of Palembang, the authorities have to be more on guard against forest fires otherwise haze of smokes could disrupt the Asian Games now underway in the city until Sept. 2.
Police and military personnel were on guard in areas in the villages and other places around the city to make sure that the city is safe from the inconvenience caused by smokes.
Farmers are strictly prohibited from using fires to clear farmlands as fires easily spread to hit peat lands and forests during the dry season.
Reporting by Sukarli
Editing by Albert Saragih
Editor: Bustanuddin
Five concession areas in W. Kalimantan sealed following forest fires
The Jakarta Post 27 Aug 18;
The Environment and Forestry Ministry sealed land owned by five holders of plantation concessions in Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan over the weekend after authorities discovered fires in the areas.
The five companies were identified only by their initials: PT SUM, PT PLD, PT AAN, PT APL and PT RJP.
"The move is aimed at creating a deterrent effect,” Rasio Ridho Sani, the ministry's law enforcement director general who led the operation in Kubu Raya, said in a press statement on Sunday. "The government is serious in handling [forest fire] cases.”
"We will continue to monitor other locations, including by using satellite and drones," he added.
Rasio said that his office was considering levying both administrative punishments and civil and criminal charges on anyone responsible for causing forest fires in the province.
The police have named 26 individuals as suspects for allegedly burning forest across West Kalimantan. As of Friday, investigators had arrested 14 of the suspects.
Data by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) showed that the number of hot spots in West Kalimantan had decreased from 885 on Thursday to 38 on Sunday morning.
A team comprising more than 2,300 personnel from the Military, police, government ministries and local administrations have been working to extinguish fires across the province, BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. (sau/ipa)
Haze disrupts Garuda's Pontianak flights
Severianus Endi The Jakarta Post 27 Aug 18l
National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has said that haze from forest fires had disrupted its operations for several days at Supadio International Airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
Garuda Pontianak general manager Susanna Saragih said at least one flight on Monday to Jakarta and another flight to Ketapang, also in West Kalimantan, had been delayed due to poor visibility at Supadio airport.
Supadio airport recorded a decreased visibility of 450 meters on Moday, much lower than the 700 m minimum visibility standard for safe landings and takeoffs.
"No one can predict when the visibility will return to normal again. It depends on the wind and rain,” Susana said on Monday.
Garuda passenger Slamet Riyadi said he was already on board his scheduled Pontianak-Ketapang flight on Monday for takeoff at 6 a.m. local time. Thirty minutes later, however, the cabin crew announced that the flight was delayed and requested all passengers to disembark and wait in the airport lounge until further notice.
The aircraft was finally cleared for takeoff at around 8:50 a.m.
Susana added that Garuda's Pontianak service had also suffered a series of delays the previous Monday on Aug. 20, when the region had very low visibility of 200 m.
The visibility returned to normal the following day.
Haze also disrupted flights to Pontianak on Friday evening. The morning flights on Saturday were also canceled.
Authorities have been struggling to combat forest fires as the province enters the peak of the dry season. (sau/ipa)
