Haze produced by land and forest fires in Sumatra, particularly Riau and South Sumatra provinces, is blown by the winds to Singapore and some parts of Malaysia, polluting the atmosphere of the neighboring countries.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - At least eight provinces in Indonesia currently have an increasing number of hotspots producing smoke from forest and land fires, causing disturbance to neighboring countries.

"Hotspots detected by MODIS satellite in the provinces of Central, West, and South Kalimantan; South Sumatra; Riau; Bangka-Belitung; Jambi; and Lampung have been predicted to increase further," Information Data Center and Public Relations Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Sutopo Purwo Nugroho reported in Jakarta on Monday.

Haze produced by land and forest fires in Sumatra, particularly Riau and South Sumatra provinces, is blown by the winds to Singapore and some parts of Malaysia, polluting the atmosphere of the neighboring countries.

"In Sumatra, the winds have been blowing in the north and northeast directions. Smoke from South Sumatra has spread to Riau Province. Smoke from Riau and South Sumatra has blown even to Singapore, so that the Pollution Standards Index in Singapore and some parts of Malaysia have increased to a moderate level," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Antara.

On Monday, the Pollution Standards Index in Singapore broke above 100, the level beyond which the air is considered unhealthy, Singapores National Environment Agency (NEA) was quoted by the Reuters as saying on its website.

According to the Reuters, Singapores air pollution had risen to unhealthy levels, as wind had changed direction and brought in considerable smoke from forest fires in neighboring Indonesia.

Singapore is in the middle of its "haze" season, when smoke from forest clearance activities in Indonesia traditionally chokes the air. This year, however, has been practically haze-free, despite warnings in May that haze will be worse than the record pollution in 2013, it said.

The NEA had warned on Sunday that if the wind blows from the southwest, Singapore could experience occasional haze from fires on Indonesias Sumatra Island.

The Terra and Aqua satellites had detected hundreds of hotspots on Monday in Sumatra. The highest number of hotspots was detected in South Sumatra, with 281 hotspots. The second Sumatran province with numerous hotspots was Riau, with 94 hotspots.

Bangka-Belitung Province had the third highest number of hotspots (53), followed by Jambi (48) and Lampung (8).

Sutopo noted that the number of hotspots in Kalimantan had also continued to increase. Most of the hotspots detected on Monday were in Central Kalimantan, with 630 hotspots; West Kalimantan, with 268 hotspots; and South Kalimantan, with 74 hotspots.

"The smoke in Kalimantan has moved northeast toward the Kalmaegi cyclonic vortex," Sutopo said.

In Sumatra, meanwhile, the winds had blown toward the north and northeast direction, spreading smoke across Riau Province. From Riau and South Sumatra, the haze then moved to the neighboring countries, causing moderate pollution. Most of the hotspots had been caused by fires set on land or forests for plantations.

"Haze due to land and forest fires has reached the neighboring countries. Efforts to extinguish the fires must be taken to prevent the increasing number of hotspots," the BNPB official said.

In an effort to extinguish land and forest fires, the BNPB has deployed seven water bombing helicopters to help reinforce regional disaster mitigation agencys (BPBDs)efforts.

The BNPB has deployed one Bolco helicopter and one Sikorsky to Riau to carry out water bombing. At least 300 military and police personnel have been deployed to help fight the fires. Also, the forest and land fire fighters have been reinforced by workers from the Ministry of Forestry and other volunteers.

In South Sumatra, three helicopters of the Bolco and MI-8 types were deployed in coordination with the local BPBD and related agencies involving some 120 personnel.

The national disaster mitigation agency has also deployed an MI-8 and Bolco helicopter to fight forest and land fires in Central and West Kalimantan. They were assisted by police and military personnel, as well as officials from the Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics, the forestry service, and volunteers.

Sutopo said that drought this year will peak in October, so that forest and land fires still have the potential to escalate if not controlled.

Based on the 2006-2014 data, the number of hotspots in Sumatra had increased in the middle of the June-October period, while in Kalimantan the increase occurred in the August-October period. The increase in the number of hotspots peaked during September and October.

Most of the fires occurred on peat land, which were difficult to extinguish.

Meanwhile, smoke in Central Kalimantan had disturbed the activities of local residents. Residents reported on Tuesday that haze had affected their activities, as it had thickened in the morning and during the run-up to midnight.

"We felt smoke disturbance in the morning and in the run-up to midnight. Haze has terribly disturbed our activities," said Herri, a resident of Jalan Hiu Putih, Palangka Raya, on Tuesday.

He said that certain individuals still burn land to begin agricultural activities. Besides, fires that had occurred on peat land some time before had not died out by heavy rain on Monday last week. This is because the peat land has a thickness of about 10 meters.

"Actually, we still have other methods for cleaning plantation land by using agricultural equipment, such as grass-cutter machines, machetes, and other agricultural equipment, without resorting to fires," Herri pointed out.

Central Kalimantan has experienced an increasing number of hotspots since early this month. Central Kalimantans BPBD head Mochtar said that based on the NOAA satellite data, the number of hotspots detected since early this month had reached 972.

He noted that the figure had drastically increased compared with that in August. "The hotspots had occurred evenly in all districts and municipalities in Central Kalimantan Province," added Mochtar.(*)

Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014