Hundreds of hot spots found in Sumatra

M. Ara Syaf, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru

Haze from forest and bush fires has begun once again to blanket parts of Riau, Jambi and North Sumatra provinces over the last two weeks with hundreds of hot spots already detected.

Local authorities said on Tuesday that based on satellite monitoring by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Forest Fire Prevention Control Project, at least 222 hot spots had been found throughout Riau.

All the fires were detected in forestry concessions and plantations across the resource-rich province, they added.

At least seven other hot spots were recorded in plantations and forests in the regencies of Bungo, Tebo and Tanjab in Jambi.

The NOAA also detected another four fires in North Sumatra.

Naili Saidi, head of the Riau Environmental Impact Control Office (Bapedal), said in the province's capital Pekanbaru that most of the hot spots found there were located in Bengkalis and Dumai regencies.

Apart from that, the Aseab Specialist Meteorology Center based in Singapore had also identified 38 hot spots in Malaysia, he added.

The haze affecting Riau was thickest around the oil town of Duri in Bengkalis, where day was turned into virtual night.

Mandau subdistrict chief A. Ridwan Yazid said the smoke in his town of Bengkalis came from other unnamed regions.

He said the haze had also affected the Riau complex of giant oil company PT Caltex Indonesia.

Caltex hoisted a red flag on Tuesday signifying that air pollution was extremely bad and hazardous for people, Ridwan added.

Local residents have begun to wear masks to protect themselves from health risks caused by the thick haze.

Ridwan said visibility has reached the alarming level of between 15 meters and 20 meters.

The sun was unable to penetrate through the thick haze in the vicinity of the town and houses had their lights on during the day. This had been happening for several days, residents said.

The meteorology office in Riau said that in Pekanbaru itself the haze was thin and had not affected visibility much during the day.

"Early in the morning, visibility is around one kilometer but around noon it is usually already around five to six kilometers, so the haze is not yet a problem here," a meteorology office official, who only identified himself as Ibnu, told AFP.

Unlike in Duri, Pekanbaru has seen some light rain that helped clear the haze.

Everyday activities were proceeding as usual with people going to their respective work places and students attending school as normal.

To prevent respiratory problems, the Dumai health office has distributed around 5,000 masks fee of charge to local residents.

Naili further blamed the haze on land clearing practices by plantation and forest concessionaires, saying that the law should be strictly upheld against those starting fires.

The government has banned land clearance by burning following the series of massive forest and ground fires that spread smoke and thick haze over the Sumatran provinces and also Singapore and Malaysia for months on end in 1997 and 1998.

Singapore said on Tuesday the smoke from fires in Indonesia could drift into the state city, but conditions are unlikely to become severe.

"Singapore could experience slight to moderate smoke haze" in the coming months if "hotspot activities in the region continue or become more widespread," the Ministry of Environment and Meteorological Services said in a joint news release as quoted by AP.