Haze thickens in Sumatra, delays forestry minister

Haze thickens in Sumatra, delays forestry minister

The Jakarta Post, Medan/Jambi/Pekanbaru

Haze thickened on Thursday in several parts of Sumatra, causing
flight delays and school shutdowns. The flight delays affected
many people, including the Minister of Forestry M.S. Kaban, who
is partly responsible handling the haze problem.

Firman, chief of the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency
(BMG) at Polonia Airport in Medan, said that Kaban's flight had
to be delayed because of thick haze over the Sibolga area that
was in his aircraft's flight path.

The thick haze in Sibolga had reduced pilot visibility to 400
meters, far below ideal visibility of between 2,000 and 3,000
meters, he said. "For the sake of safety, the flight had to be
delayed," said Firman.

Firman said that the haze blanketing the Sibolga area was the
result of forest fires in Riau and North Sumatra provinces. In
Riau province, the agency detected 588 hot spots on Thursday,
while in North Sumatra six hot spots were detected.

"The wind has blown the haze to the Sibolga area," said
Firman.

The haze lifted in the afternoon, allowing Kaban and his
entourage to head to Sibolga. However, the incident certainly
inconvenienced the Minister, keeping him waiting for seven hours
at Polonia Airport.

Kaban, who was about to inaugurate Batang Gadis National Park
in Mandailing Natal regency near Sibolga, finally reached Pinang
Sori Airport in Sibolga at 1 p.m.

"We were not disappointed for our own sake. Safety has to be
our first priority," said Kaban.

In the Riau capital of Pekanbaru, three schools in the city
were closed on Thursday due to the thickening haze.

On Wednesday, visibility in the city was between 500 and 600
meters, but later on Thursday, visibility dropped to 300 and 400
meters.

The thick haze prompted some entrepreneurial people in
Pekanbaru take advantage of the situation. Mask sellers became
ubiquitous in the city streets. Hendra, a mask seller, said that
half of 100 masks he brought had been sold.

In Jambi, haze has blanketed the city for the past month, with
no signs that it will soon disappear.

On Thursday, visibility stood at between 300 and 500 meters,
with some residents complaining of respiratory and eye irritation
problems.

"The government is not serious about tackling the haze
problem. It has persisted since last month, but there have been
no efforts by the government to tackle it," said Irawati, a Jambi
resident.

Joko Fajar, chief of the Forest Fire Management Agency in the
province, said that the thick haze prevailed in the city
following forest fires in East Tanjungjabung and Batanghari
regencies. "There are currently six hot spots in the two
regencies," said Joko, who promised that he would deploy
firefighters to help put out the fires.