Officials to investigate hot spots in Sumatra<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (AFP): Environmental authorities Monday warned
\nIndonesia could be heading for a repeat of the hazes disasters of
\nthe last two years after choking smog blanketed a central
\nSumatran province.<\/p>\n
Authorities said they were sending teams to Riau province as
\nevidence mounted that haze was quickly spreading over the area.<\/p>\n
M. Alamsyah, the head of the regional Environmental Impact
\nAgency based in the Riau capital of Pekanbaru, said the number of
\nhotspots had soared from about 80 on February 28 to 165 on March
\n3.<\/p>\n
Alamsyah said his office sent teams to check on the hotspots,
\ncenters of heat recorded on satellite images of the area.<\/p>\n
\"But this seems to be just like in the previous years, the use
\nof fire for land clearing,\" Alamsyah said.<\/p>\n
The increasing number of hotspots in Riau coincided with the
\nend of the rainy season about two weeks ago, said Anwar of the
\nRiau province meteorology office.<\/p>\n
\"We do not seem to have learned from experience, I think we
\nare heading to the same disaster as last year,\" Anwar said,
\nadding that thick smoke now covered the area early in the day
\nonly to dissipate by midmorning.<\/p>\n
\"It is definitely smoke and not mist, because peoples' eyes
\nhurt in the morning,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Visibility in Pekanbaru has been greatly reduced by the smoke
\nin the mornings for the past week, Anwar said.<\/p>\n
On Monday, visibility was at 400 metres at 6:00 a.m. (23:00
\nGMT Sunday), 500 meters an hour later and 800 meter at 8:00 a.m.
\n(01:00 GMT). But strong winds quickly cleared the sky and at 9:00
\na.m., visibility was at 1,200 meters.<\/p>\n
\"We have only had one flight delay on Saturday morning, but
\nwith the present pattern of poor visibility, I have heard that
\nthe aviation authorities will move flights arriving and taking
\noff from Pekanbaru to a later time in the day,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Alamsyah said that most of the hotspots were in areas known to
\nbe used for plantations, and only a small number were detected
\nover forests.<\/p>\n
Last year, smoke from forest and scrub fires on the Indonesian
\nislands of Sumatra and Borneo hit hazardous levels affecting air
\ntraffic and public health for weeks.<\/p>\n
Riau was one of the hardest hit by fires in 1999, with the
\nnumber of hotspots detected daily across the province reaching
\naround 500 at the height of summer.<\/p>\n
Most of the fires were started by villagers and forestry firms
\nclearing land, officials have said. Despite a government ban on
\nslash and burn land clearing, the practice continued unabated,
\nincluding by large plantation firms.<\/p>\n
Indonesian authorities have blamed a lack of manpower,
\nequipment, funding and knowhow for their failure to control the
\nfires.<\/p>\n
Fires in Sumatra and Borneo covered much of the region with a
\nchoking haze for months in 1997 and to a lesser extent in 1998,
\ncausing extensive health and traffic problems. The fires were
\nestimated to have gutted some 10 million hectares (24.7 million
\nacres) of forests.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/officials-to-investigate-hot-spots-in-sumatra-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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