Choking haze annual plague for Kalimantan

Bambang Bider and Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pontianak/Pekanbaru

Forest and ground fires have become an annual headache not only for the people affected, but for the rest of the nation and neighboring countries as well.

Suffocating smoke is a major problem in Kalimantan and Sumatra, where people often complain of upper respiratory tract infections, eye irritation, difficult in breathing, headaches and diarrhea.

It has forced schools to close down and residents to wear masks, disrupted commercial flights and sent the victims flocking to clinics for haze-related illnesses.

"I've had a flu and a cough for the past two days. It must be the smoke that's causing it," Laili, 30, an female employee of a travel agent in the Riau capital of Pekanbaru, said on Saturday.

The persistent choking smoke has led to an abundance of stories about how people have been affected in Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan, the area that has been the hardest hit.

Achmad, 60, who steers a dugout used to ferry passengers across the Kapuas river in Pontianak, told The Jakarta Post about some of bad experiences he has had on the Kapuas river when it was blanketed by haze.

When the haze was bad, he often lost his way on the river while ferrying passengers from Kampung Kapur village, Tanjung Hulu subdistrict, to Kampung Bangka village in Pontianak.

"I always wake up at 5 a.m. every day and go to work directly. Last Wednesday when the haze was very thick, I lost my way in the middle of the Kapuas river for one hour," he said.

The haze season always sparks anxiety for Halima, 35, a housewife in Pekanbaru, who said she had to take her youngest daughter out of kindergarten for health reasons.

"My youngest daughter has been staying at home for the past week. I don't dare to let her go out in haze after the health problems it caused her last year," Halima, a mother of three children, said.

The thicker the haze, the fewer the students who turn up for school and the lower the takings of public transportation drivers like Izal, who plies the route between Tangkarang district and the market in downtown Pekanbaru.

"Many of my passengers are kindergarten kids. My daily income has dropped sharply over the last few days as the children are staying at home," Izal said on Saturday.

But the disaster appears not to have affected other residents so seriously, and they are continuing to go about their daily activities.

In some locations, the locals are still starting fires to clear land despite the haze choking neighboring areas.

Achmad and Izal are two examples of how life for many has continued as normal.

"The haze is just a routine occurrence. It won't prevent me from traveling," Izal said. "At least I don't feel the sun burning me thanks to the haze."

Strong protests have repeatedly been voiced by the public as well as neighboring countries, which have ticked off Indonesia for exporting the haze every year.

Environmental activists have accused the government of doing nothing to prevent, or cope with, the fires and haze.

Dayak tribal leader Maniamas Miden slammed the government for blaming, among others, local people and squatters for the annual fires.

"I am extremely disappointed by the way they have pinned the blame on small farmers, including Dayaks," he told the Post on Saturday.

Miden said Kalimantan had never been plagued by widespread haze until concession holders first created industrial timber estates and other plantations in the province.

"Since time out of mind, the Dayaks have been practicing their traditional methods of opening up and managing new land, and there was no haze. But since the plantation concessionaires came in and the forests began to be cut down, West Kalimantan has become prone to the haze," he argued.

Miden said traditional farmers did not use the slash-and-burn method to clear land at random.

"Owing to its inability to tackle the fires, the government is apparently trying to seek a scapegoat and shift the public's attention by blaming traditional farmers," he added.

Much-awaited rains fell in some parts of West Kalimantan on Friday, bringing relief to residents.

The overnight heavy rains continued through Saturday morning, significantly improving visibility and air quality in the smoke- blanketed province.

But that does not signal the end of the problem. Even if the fires are extinguished, the people in Sumatra and Kalimantan may well have to face the very same difficulties next year.