Haze clears on Sumatra, critical on Kalimantan
JAKARTA (JP): Heavy rain over the weekend on Sumatra island dampened forest fires and reduced the dangerous level of haze there.
But fires on Kalimantan island have yet to abate, bringing haze to alarming levels on Monday.
Officials in Riau province, one of the worst hit by the haze in past weeks, said continuing downpours since the weekend were believed to have helped douse over two-thirds of the 1,064 hot spots in the area.
"The rain is a blessing, the visibility is now at five kilometers in the afternoon and it is much better than last Tuesday, when we had to cancel one flight," the spokesman for the local administration, Ruskin Har, told The Jakarta Post by telephone from the provincial capital of Pekanbaru.
He said the average pollution index, which had been at 125, had dropped to 60 on Monday evening.
An air-quality reading of between 51 and 100 is moderate, while over 100 is regarded as unhealthy.
Ruskin added that at least 30 people had been treated at Pekanbaru General Hospital for respiratory disorders.
According to Ruskin, the local administration was watching out for concessionaires which burned the forest to clear land.
He said a joint team comprising the police, forestry officials, the Attorney General's Office and the local administration had been loaned a helicopter by the Ministry of Communications to patrol the area.
"So far we've caught a big plantation firm which was clearing 1,500 hectares of land by burning the forest," said Ruskin, adding that he was certain other violators would be caught.
Meanwhile, Antara news agency reported on Monday the authorities in West Kalimantan were concerned about the effect the haze would have on the health of local residents.
According to several reports, air traffic to Pontianak has been seriously disrupted by the haze. The reports said flights could land only after mid-morning, when a sea breeze blew off the haze.
Punish
Meanwhile, Singapore urged Indonesia on Monday to punish companies responsible for the forest fires which had led to the smoky haze covering much of the region.
Minister of the Environment Lee Yock Suan told Singapore's parliament that Indonesia's laws were currently not very clear, despite Jakarta's attempts to resolve the problem amid fears the haze would return to the dangerous levels seen in 1997.
"It is very important for Indonesia to make sure its laws are clear and there are sufficient teeth to take action against the culprits," he was quoted as saying by AFP.
"Unfortunately, at the moment I think the law is really not watertight.
"I think it is very important for Indonesia to show that it has the political commitment and will to tackle this problem to prevent it from becoming a disaster for the region again," he said.
The comments were made amid rising fears that Indonesia could be heading for a repeat of 1997 and part of 1998, in which fires in Sumatra and Borneo covered much of the region with a choking haze.
Despite a government ban in Indonesia on slash-and-burn land clearing, the practice has continued unabated, including by large plantation firms.
Lee said Indonesia also needed to clarify the structure of enforcement, "whether it is the environment agency that is responsible, or the forestry and plantation people who are responsible or the local provincial officials .... All these things have to be clarified".
Lee, however, said Indonesia was trying its best to resolve the difficult problem and has threatened to prosecute and suspend the licenses of four companies suspected of causing fires.
He said he had sought the cooperation of Indonesia to undertake prompt and firm enforcement against plantation companies that used fire to clear land.
The smoke has been blamed mostly on the large-scale burning of forest and shrubs to clear land for the new planting season.
Lee said Singapore's air quality was not badly affected by the haze in nearby Sumatra because of prevailing wind directions. (08)