Haze reaches alarming levels, affecting health, environtment

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

Thick haze covering a major part of Sumatra and Kalimantan has reached alarming levels, affecting people's health, transportation and the environment.

Visibility was only 10 meters to 20 meters in the morning and about 100 meters at midday on Tuesday and Wednesday in many parts of the two islands.

Most people in major cities there wore masks to go to their workplaces and most schools remained closed, as children are quite prone to haze-related respiratory and eye problems.

More than 2,600 infants in Pontianak were taken to several hospitals and clinics to deal with respiratory and other problems.

The thick clouds of smoke emanated from land clearance and forest fires that have been made worse by the presence of more than 4,000 hotspots in Kalimantan and about 3,000 more in Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra.

"Most people are choking and sneezing day and night," Arman, a resident of Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan, said on Wednesday.

The forest fires and land clearance have produced thick haze over a major part of Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia.

Agencies reported a number of flights were canceled from airports in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia early on Wednesday due to restricted visibility caused by the thick haze.

Officers at the information center of Pontianak's Supadio Airport told The Jakarta Post that flight arrivals and departures were delayed for four hours and were only able to return to normal after 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Motorists were also obliged to use headlights in daylight.

Adiany, a senior official of the pollution division at the West Kalimantan Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda), said the smoke had reached levels that were hazardous for people's health, increasing the number of victims with respiratory complications.

Smoke is considered dangerous for human health if it reaches 300 on the Standard Air Pollution Index (ISPU), according to local health officials.

"From this morning until midday, the ISPU in Pontianak hit 600 to 800. Therefore, we should take urgent measures to deal with the problem," Adiany said.

Secretary of the West Kalimantan provincial administration Henri Usman said, however, that Governor Aspar Aswin had not yet declared a state of emergency as of Wednesday because he had gone to Jakarta to consult with the central government.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Research and Technology Hatta Radjasa asked local authorities in Sumatra and Kalimantan to take tougher measures against those involved in land clearance, which had multiple impacts, both on people and the environment.

Without intending to apportion blame, the minister said provincial and regency authorities in the two islands had the responsibility to take action against offenders. These included both forest concessionaires (HPH), who cleared areas by burning them to convert the land into plantations and forest squatters, who also burned parts of the forest.

"HPH holders found burning their forest areas must be taken to court but forest squatters must be told not to burn their farmland," he said, adding it was impossible to punish forest squatters and farmers because they did not know they were breaking the law.

He stated that the forest fires had a lot to do with the dry season, during which many seminomadic farmers burned the forest to create new farmland. They have also made it difficult for most people to get clean water, causing an outbreak of diarrhea, as they drank polluted water.

Hatta, who inspected forest fires in Kalimantan and Riau early this month, said that despite regional autonomy, the central government and local administration had to produce a comprehensive solution to the haze problem to prevent it from occurring annually.

"Local administrations must improve the awareness of farmers and forest squatters through a cultural campaign that burning forest and farmland damages the environment, is against the law and causes numerous problems for human health and transportation," he said, citing such a campaign would be more effective than cloud seeding (to make artificial rain), which costs Rp 80 million to Rp 100 million per day.

He cited that farmers and forest squatters practicing their seminomadic lifestyle contributed almost 70 percent to the haze problem, while HPH holders were responsible for only 30 percent.

He said that besides intensifying the reforestation program, his office and the forestry ministry had carried out studies and research to develop new plants that benefited farmers and the environment.

"We are promoting the aloe plant for cultivation in the one- million-hectare farmland project in West Kalimantan. The plant is suited to the land and has high economic value," he said.