Haze chokes Pekanbaru and neighboring cities<\/p>\n
Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post\/Pekanbaru<\/p>\n
Historically thick haze from forest fires and burn-offs blanketed
\nseveral parts of Riau on Friday, including the capital of
\nPekanbaru, disrupting flights and forcing schools to close.<\/p>\n
The haze from Sumatra also spread to other cities in the
\nregion, sparking fears that the thick, hazardous \"pea-souper\"
\nsmog would increase to the extreme levels experienced in 1997.<\/p>\n
The authorities in Pekanbaru said the haze on Friday was
\nthickest they had ever measured. Visibility reduced from 300 to
\n600 meters to under 200 meters, virtually shutting down the
\nSultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru.<\/p>\n
\"The visibility is only 200 meters. It is the thickest haze so
\nfar,\" said Joko Budianto, the chief of the air-traffic operation
\ndivision at the airport.<\/p>\n
Fearing ill effect from the haze on school children the
\nPekanbaru government ordered schools shut down in the city on
\nFriday and advised parents to keep their children indoors.<\/p>\n
\"The students will return to schools only after the haze has
\nlifted,\" Pekanbaru Mayor Herman Abdullah said.<\/p>\n
However, many students ignored the advice and were seen
\nplaying soccer in local fields. Others rode motorcycles or
\nwandered aimlessly in packs around the city's thoroughfares in
\ntraffic slowed down by the haze.<\/p>\n
A Reuters report on Friday said smoke from forest fires was
\nshrouding other Southeast Asian cities, stirring memories of a
\nchoking pall that blanketed the region almost a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of fires have burnt for days in parched forests
\nacross Malaysia, Singapore and Sumatra, razing more than 80
\nsquare kilometers in Malaysia alone.<\/p>\n
The haze is less severe than the thick blanket of forest-fire
\nsmoke that descended on the region in 1997 and 1998 and cost an
\nestimated US$9 billion in damage to farming, tourism and
\ntransport. But it has prompted official warnings of unhealthy
\nlevels of air pollution in several parts of Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Governments have urged people not to light fires or discard
\nburning cigarette butts, pointing out that forests are tinder dry
\nafter weeks of abnormally hot, dry weather.<\/p>\n
\"The public has to be careful,\" Malaysian Prime Minister
\nAbdullah Ahmad Badawi said in Kuala Lumpur, where it is
\nimpossible to see the horizon even from office towers.<\/p>",
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