Haze delays flights in Pontianak

Haze delays flights in Pontianak

The Jakarta Post, Pontianak/Jakarta

Thick haze from forest fires has blanketed many parts of
Kalimantan and Sumatra, reducing visibility and badly affecting
local residents and those in neighboring Malaysia.

In West Kalimantan, low visibility forced commercial planes to
delay all flights from and to its capital of Pontianak by up to
one-and-a-half hours on Thursday morning.

"The delays are effective for incoming and outgoing flights at
the airport between 7 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.," an airport information
officer told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Flight schedules
returned to normal beginning at 9 a.m.

Officials at the local Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG)
said visibility in Pontianak and surrounding regencies was
reduced to between 200 meters and 400 meters in the morning and
1,000 meters in the evening.

The haze, which started shrouding Pontianak on Monday, has
also raised air pollution to hazardous levels.

Many motorists and pedestrians have complained of eye and skin
irritation and respiratory problems.

Head of the Pontianak health office Oskar Primadi said on
Thursday that at least 2,464 people had experienced respiratory
problems resulting from the smoke pollution.

The local administration urged residents in most affected
areas to wear masks to reduce health risks.

"The haze is expected to thicken and the environmental
condition will deteriorate in coming days as there will be no
rainfall across West Kalimantan," Supriandi, a BMG official, told
the Post on Thursday.

Smoke has also blanketed many other regencies in the
provinces, including Putussibau, Sintang, Sanggau and Sambas.

"The bad weather has continued for the past three days in all
parts of West Kalimantan. Today (Thursday) the haze is worsening
and is expected to continue until next week," said Maroni,
another local BMG official.

The haze was blamed on forest fires in almost all parts of
Pontianak and its neighboring regencies.

Satellite data from a local forest fire control body showed
that at least 544 hot spots were found in the province on Tuesday
and Wednesday, but the number decreased to only 90 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, Minister of Forestry M. Prakosa
dismissed on Thursday reports claiming that forest fires in West
Kalimantan were uncontrollable.

He said local authorities were still able to control the
forest fires. "After being checked, there are hot spots but the
number is not as many as reported in the media," he said.

The areas included peat land behind the Tanjungpura University
campus located on Jl. Budi Utomo, some 300 meters from the West
Kalimantan governor's office.

Local fire-fighting workers put out the fires on Thursday
afternoon.

Thick smoke also cloaked some parts of East Kalimantan,
including its capital of Samarinda, Bontang, Sangatta and
Sangkulirang.

The haze-affected areas also included North Paser Regency, on
the border of East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan province. But,
Balikpapan was free from the smoke on Thursday.

Many hot spots were detected in areas from Bontang to Sangatta
and Sangkulirang within the Kutai National Park in the town of
East Kutai.

The forest fires are believed to have resulted from slash-and-
burn practices to clear land for plantations in the Kutai
National Park.

The smoke from the fires also annoyed residents, particularly
motorists, across East Kalimantan.

"Today we can smell the odor of burning wood when we go out of
the house. The clothes dried out outside the house also smell of
smoke," said Nani, a housewife living in the Teluk Lingga area,
East Kutai.

Haze from forest fires in Sumatra has also blanketed parts of
the Malaysian Peninsular, reducing visibility to as low as 1.5
kilometers near the capital Kuala Lumpur, government officials
said on Thursday.

"The southwesterly winds have blown the haze toward the
peninsula. We learned there are about 50 hot spots in Sumatra,"
an official at the Malaysian Meteorological Service was quoted by
Reuters as saying.