Yulia Savitri The Jakarta Post 7 Oct 18;
Rain poured down on Palembang, South Sumatra, on Sunday afternoon, clearing the view in a city that had been blanketed by smoke from forest fires for the past few days.
“We are expecting medium to heavy rain,” said Bambang Benny Setiaji, an official from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) local office.
The haze had covered the city since last week, nearly obscuring Ampera Bridge on Friday morning as visibility narrowed to less than 2 kilometers.
BMKG Palembang spokesperson Nandang Pangariwibowo said visibility in the city that day was between 1 and 2 km, with air quality categorized as unhealthy.
“We call on the people to put on masks in such conditions, even though the haze appears from night to morning,” Nandang said.
According to the head of the South Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BPBD South Sumatra) emergency mitigation division, Ansori, the number of hot spots has been increasing for the last three days as a result of drying water sources.
Authorities have discovered hot spots in four regencies outside Palembang, namely Ogan Ilir, Ogan Komering Ilir, Banyuasin and Musi Banyuasin.
In Ogan Ilir, haze reduced visibility on the Palembang-Inderalaya toll road, hampering intercity road transportation.
“This is accumulated haze carried away by the wind to Palembang,” Ansori said.
He added that fires in the three regencies could be found across 77,000 hectares of land, with the greatest number of hot spots found in Ogan Komering Ilir.
Businessmen, landowners named suspects in South Sumatra forest fires
The Jakarta Post 8 Oct 18;
Police have named seven suspects over forest fires that plagued the province of South Sumatra over the past week.
South Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Zulkarnain Adinegara said two of the suspects were businesspeople, while five were local landowners.
“The seven suspects are involved in forest fires in OKI [Ogan Komering Ilir], Banyuasin, Ogan Ilir and Palembang,” he said on Sunday as quoted by tribunnews.com.
He said the suspects had admitted to starting the fires to clear land [for cultivation]. The smoke from the fires had caused thick haze covering Palembang and some surrounding areas over the past few days.
“[The perpetrators started the fires] so that, when the rainy season starts, they could immediately start planting,” Zulkarnain said. “But clearing land by burning is wrong. We will continue to monitor the forest fires in South Sumatra.”
He added that police were investigating other fires in the region as well.
“Fields that have been burned are marked with police line and investigated. After that, we look for the owner of the field,” he said. “This way, we hope to deter people from setting fires.” (kra)
