Twelve die of haze-related infections

JAKARTA (JP): At least 12 elderly people have died in Jambi reportedly of respiratory infections blamed on the thick haze that has been enveloping the province over the past several months.

M. Sayoeti, a member of a group of activists working to alleviate the impacts of the haze, was quoted by Antara as saying in Jambi yesterday that information about the fatalities was gathered from village health clinics in six regencies.

He did not elaborate, but the news agency said the 12 had been patients with previous respiratory problems whose condition worsened after haze, caused by the surrounding forest fires, hit the province.

Another Antara dispatch from Irian Jaya said that ten people have died in Okhim village, Kiwirok district at the Indonesian border with Papua New Guinea, reportedly because of drought- related food shortages and diseases.

Village chief Paulus Bawi reported the deaths to Irian Jaya Governor Jacob Pattipi last week.

The village in the Jayawijaya regency, with a population of 1,579 people, had no health centers or medical personnel to render aid to the victims, Antara reported.

The head of Jambi's provincial health office, Abdul Hamidsyam, could not give the exact number of haze-related deaths in the Sumatran province, which has a population of 2.9 million, as there had not been any reports from its regencies.

He did not rule out the possibility that the number could be higher than the cases reported by clinics. "Maybe there were patients who died of (diseases caused by inhaling the haze) at home, and so they were not recorded at health clinics or hospitals," he said.

He said the concentration of dust particles in the haze is still four times above tolerable levels. Up to last month, health authorities had discovered and treated about 10,000 people suffering from asthma.

If the situation persists until December, Jambi could see a surge as high as one million in asthmatic and respiratory cases, he said.

He called on residents to reduce their outdoor activities and continue to use protective masks.

At Jambi's Sultan Thaha Airport, the head of the airport's meteorology and geophysics agency, Ariyana Yasin, said visibility was reduced to 20 meters as the result of the thick haze.

He stated that rains predicted to pour over Jambi later this month would not be able to drive out the haze in a short period of time.

The protracted drought across Indonesia has caused a great number of problems -- from forest fires creating the haze to crop failures and the subsequent danger of famine.

The government had earlier admitted that 461 people have died in three regencies in Irian Jaya of various drought-related illnesses.

There have been reports of food shortages from many other regions, including the provinces of Central Java, East Nusa Tenggara and East Kalimantan. Some local officials, however, have been quick to deny the reports, with those in East Kalimantan saying that deaths from starvation were not caused by food shortages but because residents could not afford to buy food.

Antara reported from Jambi yesterday that at least seven villages in Kerinci regency were facing possible food shortages because of crop failures.

Syahbuddin, the head of the food agriculture office in Kerinci, in Kota Sungai Penuh some 490 kilometers west of the capital city of Jambi, said that 8,000 out of the 16,000 hectares of agricultural land could no longer be tilled because of the drought.

Kerinci used to be the province's second largest rice producer after Tanjung Jabung regency.

Residents have complained of food price hikes due to the food shortage.

Meanwhile, the Raden Inten II Airport in Bandar Lampung had to be closed due to the haze yesterday.

From Sorong, Irian Jaya, Antara reported that residents have not been able to obtain newspapers for the past two weeks because haze had forced the cancellation of flights into the regency. Visibility was only 300 meters, forcing the Jefman and Sorong airstrips to be closed.

In Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau that had enjoyed a brief respite from haze, residents again complained that smoke had returned over the past two days.

"The weather is so unpredictable here. It can look sunny, but then it can be cloudy all of the sudden," a resident said, adding that the situation caused prospective air travelers to worry. (swe/09)