Residents told to don masks

Residents told to don masks

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan: Head of the provincial health
office M.H. Torisz has advised residents to wear masks because
haze resulting from forest fires in the province is getting
thicker, Antara reported.

He said his office was monitoring the thickness of the haze in
the province and had taken precautions to deal with respiratory
problems caused by air pollution.

There are an estimated 300 hot spots in the province, mostly
found in Sintang regency. The haze has also spread to neighboring
Brunei Darussalam and Sarawak in Malaysia.

Separately, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
representative office in Indonesia on Tuesday handed a plan to
manage Betung Kerihun National Park to the West Kalimantan
administration.

"WWF, in cooperation with the International Timber Trade
Organization (ITTO), has an interest in helping the Indonesian
government draw up the plan to manage the area stretching from
Betung Kerihun National Park in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, to
Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary in Serawak, Malaysia," West
Kalimantan Governor H. Aspar Aswin said.

The two conservation areas constitute a trans-boundary
conservation area which covers 200 hectares in Lanjak Entimau and
800 hectares in Betung Kerihun, he said.