Indonesia to host four-nation meeting on choking haze
SINGAPORE (Reuters): Indonesia will host a four-nation meeting on July 19 to find ways to combat forest fires raging on Sumatra and Kalimantan as smoke from the blazes drives up pollution levels in the region.
Environment officials from Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore will be eager to see how promised measures translate into concrete action and how Indonesia's neighbors may be called upon to help at Thursday's meeting in Jakarta.
"We'll find out more when we meet them on July 19. So far it's contact through letters," Loh Ah Tuan, a director at Singapore's Ministry of the Environment, said during a media conference on Friday.
"Our sense is that there is a commitment on their part to actually deal with the fires."
Indonesia drew harsh criticism from its neighbors in 1997 when smoke from fires lit by slash-and-burn farmers blanketed large parts of Southeast Asia, hurting tourism and prompting health concerns across the region.
Indonesian authorities have asked Australian firefighters to help them put out fires now hitting parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Meanwhile, reports from the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak said that more than 2,500 people had been treated at local community health centers for haze-related problems.
Oscar Primadi, the head of the Pontianak Health Office, said on Saturday that between July 2 and July 14 a total of 1,800 people sought treatment for respiratory problems, 655 others had skin diseases and 47 others had sore eyes.
"The number does not include those treated at big hospitals and private clinics," said Oscar, adding that his office had anticipated the haze-related problems by instructing all community health centers in the city to make all necessary medicines available.
Thick smoke covering Pontianak has also disrupted flight schedules, with most departures and arrivals of planes at the Supadio Airport being delayed.
Rain fell on the city on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but was too light to eliminate the smoke. The pollution level in the city has exceeded 500 micrograms. Any level over 50 micrograms is considered unhealthy.
Visibility in Pontianak between 5 p.m. on Friday and 2 a.m. on Saturday was about 500 meters. Between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Saturday, visibility was only 100 meters.
From Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, Antara news agency reported on Saturday that the choking haze was growing thicker.
Tupon, an official at the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency at the Sultan Syarif Qasim II Airport, said the situation could get worse if the rains did not come.
"The temperature in Pekanbaru and the province of Riau in general has reached 35 degrees Celsius lately. Normally it is only between 28 and 29 degrees."
He said the haze had yet to disturb flights at the airport, with visibility still at about 3,000 meters or more. "But if the fires are not extinguished, things could go worse like in 1997."
Tupon's concerns are justified, with satellite images showing that Riau has the most hot spots of all areas in and around Sumatra.
According to Antara, numerous people in Riau have gone to community health centers complaining of respiratory problems. (46/sur)