Haze chokes Pekanbaru and neighboring cities

Haze chokes Pekanbaru and neighboring cities

Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Pekanbaru

Historically thick haze from forest fires and burn-offs blanketed
several parts of Riau on Friday, including the capital of
Pekanbaru, disrupting flights and forcing schools to close.

The haze from Sumatra also spread to other cities in the
region, sparking fears that the thick, hazardous "pea-souper"
smog would increase to the extreme levels experienced in 1997.

The authorities in Pekanbaru said the haze on Friday was
thickest they had ever measured. Visibility reduced from 300 to
600 meters to under 200 meters, virtually shutting down the
Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru.

"The visibility is only 200 meters. It is the thickest haze so
far," said Joko Budianto, the chief of the air-traffic operation
division at the airport.

Fearing ill effect from the haze on school children the
Pekanbaru government ordered schools shut down in the city on
Friday and advised parents to keep their children indoors.

"The students will return to schools only after the haze has
lifted," Pekanbaru Mayor Herman Abdullah said.

However, many students ignored the advice and were seen
playing soccer in local fields. Others rode motorcycles or
wandered aimlessly in packs around the city's thoroughfares in
traffic slowed down by the haze.

A Reuters report on Friday said smoke from forest fires was
shrouding other Southeast Asian cities, stirring memories of a
choking pall that blanketed the region almost a decade ago.

Hundreds of fires have burnt for days in parched forests
across Malaysia, Singapore and Sumatra, razing more than 80
square kilometers in Malaysia alone.

The haze is less severe than the thick blanket of forest-fire
smoke that descended on the region in 1997 and 1998 and cost an
estimated US$9 billion in damage to farming, tourism and
transport. But it has prompted official warnings of unhealthy
levels of air pollution in several parts of Malaysia.

Governments have urged people not to light fires or discard
burning cigarette butts, pointing out that forests are tinder dry
after weeks of abnormally hot, dry weather.

"The public has to be careful," Malaysian Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in Kuala Lumpur, where it is
impossible to see the horizon even from office towers.