Jakarta, Sept 12 (Antara) - Thick haze that has blanketed various parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, continued to worsen on Saturday, forcing airlines to cancel flights at several airports and schools to close.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the number of hotspots in Sumatra and Kalimantan has continued to increase despite the government's efforts to intensify emergency operations.
"Although, we have launched emergency operations, hotspots in Sumatra and Kalimantan are continuing to spread, reaching 1,887 points," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a press statement in Jakarta on Saturday.
Some 1,887 hotspots were detected by the Terra and Aqua Satellite on Friday at 5 a.m. Western Indonesia Standard Time (WIB). It reported 575 hotspots in Sumatra and 1,312 in Kalimantan.
In Sumatra, the hotspots were mostly detected in South Sumatra Province with 449 points, Jambi Province 93 points, Bangka Belitung Province 49 and Riau Province 11. In Kalimantan, a total of 1,312 hotspots were detected, namely 508 in West Kalimantan, 127 in South Kalimantan, 579 in Central Kalimantan, 95 in East Kalimantan and four in North Kalimantan.
"It is predicted that the ongoing forest and land fires still have the potential to get worse till September 14 because the weather is still increasingly dry," Nugroho said.
The BNPB said haze was still shrouding the provinces of South Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, some parts of Lampung, and almost all parts of Kalimantan, except the North Kalimantan province.
On Saturday, the agency also released data about visibility reducing to 500 meters in Pakanbaru (Riau province), 200 meters in the Rengat and Pelalawan districts (Riau), 500 meters in Jambi province, 400 meters in Muaro Jambi district, 150 to 700 meters in Central Kalimantan and 500 meters in South Kalimantan.
The air quality in most of these areas has been declared dangerous to the health, with a pollutant standard index of 144 to 167.
"This data was quoted by Singapore's National Environmental Agency. The figure has been categorized at a non-healthy level. It is unhealthy if the index reaches a range of 100-200," Nugroho said.
BNPB's provisional data indicated that in Riau, the number of respiratory infection patients had touched 14,566, in South Sumatra 22,855 and South Kalimantan 40,000 patients.
In order to prevent the health of students from being affected by the haze, the regional government of North Barito District, Central Kalimantan, had ordered all schools to close for the time being.
"The closure of schools begins on Monday, September 14 and will continue until Saturday, September 19. We will also continue to monitor the condition of the haze to see whether the smoke has declined or increased," Elpi Epnop, the head of the North Barito Education Service, said on Saturday.
The instruction to shut down school activities was issued through a circular signed by the North Barito District Head, Nadlsyah, and has been sent to nine sub-districts. "We hope the haze will disappear soon and academic activities return to normal," Nadlsyah said.
Education and Culture Minister, Anies Baswedan said students' health and safety are more important than continuing school activities when haze affects a number of regions.
"Health and safety must be the number one priority. Students cannot go to school if they are sick. They can have extra classes if haze disappears," the minister said in Cipanas, West Java, on Saturday.
The haze has also resulted in airlines having to cancel flights in a number of regions. A total of 19 flights going to and departing from Batam's Hang Nadim International Airport were cancelled on Saturday.
More airports are being affected by the haze in Indonesia as flights continue to be disrupted.
The head of the public communication center at the Ministry of Transportation, J.A. Barata, said in a written statement on Friday that the number of airports affected by the haze from land fires had risen to 21 on Friday from 16 on Thursday.
He said the five airports that were affected by the haze were the airports in Nangah Pinoh (West Kalimantan), Palembang (Sumatra), Pekanbaru (Sumatra) and Balikpapan (Kalimantan).
Other similar airports are in Melak (East Kalimantan), Pangkalan Bun (Central Kalimantan), Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan), Pontianak (West Kalimantan, Jambi (Sumatra), Sampit (Central Kalimantan), Putusibau (West Kalimantan), Samarinda (East Kalimantan), Sintang (West Kalimantan, Ketapang (West Kalimantan), Long Apung (North Kalimantan), Sampir, Muara Teweh and Palangkaraya all in Kalimantan provinces.
"Until today, visibility in Jambi (Sumatra) is still 600 meters. Three general flights plus a hajj flight have been rescheduled, while others have been cancelled," he said.
Among the flights that have been rescheduled are Garuda Indonesia's GIA 132/133, serving Jakarta-Jambi-Jakarta, while a Lion Air Jakarta-Jambi flight remained grounded over night.
Barata said cancellations and delays had also been reported at the Syamsuddin Noor Airport in Banjarmasin (Kalimantan). A total of 13 flights at the airport have been delayed and two cancelled.
The Rahadi Usman Airport in Ketapang (Kalimantan) recorded six delays, the Iskandar Airport in Pangkalan Bun five delays and one cancellation, the Tjilik Riwut Airport in Palangkaraya eight delays and three cancellations, the Beringing Muara Airport in Muara Teweh three cancellations, the Haji Asan Airport in Sampit four delays and the Susilo Airport in Sintang two delays and the Pangsuma Airport in Putusibau two delays.***4***
(A014/INE)
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(T.A014/A/BESSR/A.J.S. Bie) 12-09-2015 20:34: |
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