Thick haze claims first victims
Thick haze claims first victims
JAKARTA (JP): Two people have died after suffering respiratory
problems caused by haze, which has been choking dozens of towns
in Sumatra and Kalimantan, an official said yesterday.
Secretary of Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Azwar
Anas, Suyono Yahya, declined to give details on the victims or
where they came from.
The two deaths were the first officially recognized fatalities
related to the haze menace.
Suyono said more than 32,000 people in Sumatra and Kalimantan
have been afflicted with severe respiratory problems in the last
two months by the haze which came from forest fires there.
The haze worsened yesterday, forcing more schools in
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, to close. In Medan, North Sumatra,
thick haze forced the Belawan airport to delay flights.
Azwar is chairman of the National Disaster Management
Coordinating Board handling the forest fires which have scorched
an estimated 300,000 hectares of land and forest in Sumatra and
Kalimantan in the last three months.
Suyono, assigned by Azwar to speak to the media on the result
of a coordinative meeting yesterday, said the casualties were the
"latest report" from the Ministry of Health.
Taking part in the meeting were Azwar, Minister of Social
Services Endang Kusuma Inten Suweno, Minister of Education and
Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro, State Minister of Population
Haryono Suyono, State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono
Isman and the Ministry of Health's director general for drug and
food supervision Wisnu Katim, representing Minister of Health
Sujudi.
"Most of the meeting was spent talking about the forest fires
and the haze they've caused," Suyono said.
The Ministry of Health was asked to step up its monitoring of
air pollution in areas affected by the haze and to make a daily,
instead of weekly, report of the situation.
"The meeting also urged all related ministries and authorities
to prepare for actions in dealing with the fires and haze
problems," Suyono said.
The provinces worst affected by the haze are West Kalimantan,
Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan, as well
as Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra.
The government has declared first alert status for all seven
provinces because of the thickening haze clouding the areas.
The governors of the provinces were required to monitor and
publicize the quality of air in their respective areas.
Suyono also said that 1,200 Malaysian firefighters and
paramedics arrived in separate locations yesterday -- 250 in
Riau, 800 in Jambi and South Sumatra, 80 in East Kalimantan and
70 in West Kalimantan -- to join their Indonesian counterparts in
fighting the raging fires.
Criticisms have been growing at home and overseas --
particularly from Singapore and Malaysia, which have also been
affected by the haze -- of the government's handling of the
forest fires.
Minister Azwar said on Monday that the freak weather
phenomenon known as El Nio was partly to blame.
"We are not late in anticipating the problem. It's a natural
disaster which no one could have prevented. The weather has never
been as hot as it has been this year," Azwar said.
El Nio has been blamed for this year's prolonged dry season
here and in other parts of Asia as well.
El Nio is an abnormal state of the ocean-atmosphere system in
the tropical Pacific Ocean which triggers exceptionally warm and
long-lived ocean currents, disrupting global rainfall and wind
patterns and causing droughts or flooding in far-flung regions.
In Indonesia, the prolonged dry season has worsened fires
started mostly by plantation companies, which clear land for
plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
President Soeharto has already offered Indonesia's apology to
its neighbors for the haze, but underlined that the government
had done all it could do to contain the problem. (aan/prb/21)
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