Choking Haze forces more schools in Jambi to close

Jon Afrizal, The Jakarta Post/Jambi

Many more schools were closed on Friday in Jambi province as choking haze continued to blanket the area.

Haze also enveloped other provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan provinces, while local authorities in Central Kalimantan province even sought help from the central government.

In Jambi, the province hardest hit by haze, the local government ordered thousands of junior and senior high schools to close on Friday following a similar instruction earlier for elementary schools province-wide.

Schools will be closed until Sept. 17, when the haze is expected to have dissipated.

Zulkifly Nurdin, the governor of Jambi, called on students to stay indoors, as the haze had started to cause people's eyes to smart and respiratory problems.

Haze remained thick on Friday, with the density was recorded at 288 particulates per 10 micron, similar to the density a day earlier.

The haze density was far above the acceptable level of 100 particulates per 10 micron.

The head of Jambi Plantation Office, Supranto Aribowo, said that fires had burned some 5,000 hectares of forest and plantation areas in the last two weeks.

Out of the total 5,000 hectares area burned, 130 hectares were oil palm plantations run by private companies and another 520 hectares were plantations run by local residents.

Supranto estimated that oil palm plantations both run by companies and local residents in the province covered an area of 3,000 hectares. "The fire has cost the companies and local residents hundreds of millions of rupiah," said Supranto, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Supranto said that his office had managed to put out fires and they did well at some plantations. However, they failed in other plantations as they were inaccessible, hence they were completely razed by fire.

Meanwhile, haze disrupted flights on Friday in Jambi, as visibility in the morning only reached 300 meters.

Due to the low visibility, the management of Sriwijaya Air has decided not to land their planes in Sultan Thaha Airport in Jambi in the morning.

In North Sumatra province a local official blamed land clearing through slash-and-burn methods for the haze problem in the west coast of the province.

The haze has blanketed the area in the last few weeks.

"The haze came from South Sumatra and Riau provinces where forest fires resulting from land clearing have been widespread," said Firman, the head of Polonia Geophysics and Meteorology Office.

In the South Kalimantan capital of Banjarmasin, local residents were relieved on Friday as rain began to fall.

The half hour of rain helped to lift the haze and helped to increase the water table in the province, which had seen drought for several weeks.

Unlike South Kalimantan, residents in Central Kalimantan were unfortunate enough to see haze worsening on Friday. Haze was becoming denser on Friday, prompting the local government to call on residents to wear masks outdoors. The authorities here also called on the central government to provide funds to help them put out forest fires.

Widhi Wirawan, the head of East Kotawaringin municipality, for example, had asked the State Minister of Environment to help finance the operations of the municipal fire department, which is now fighting fires in the province.