Motorists ride down a road yesterday as smog from forest and land fires shrouds the area in Kampar, Riau province on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Haze across much of Southeast Asia mostly comes from forest fires on Indonesia’s western island of Sumatra, many of which are deliberately lit to clear land for plantations.
DPA/Jakarta
More than 25mn people on Sumatra and Borneo are exposed to smog caused by forest and plantation fires, an official said.
Six provinces on Sumatra and Borneo have declared haze emergencies and advised residents to stay indoors, said Tri Budiarto, emergency response deputy at the National Disaster Management Agency.
Budiarto said three aircraft and 13 helicopters had been deployed to the affected areas to seed rainclouds and drop water.
“We are hoping land and aerial fire-fighting efforts will be able to suppress the fires and haze,” Budiarto said.
President Joko Widodo held a cabinet meeting to discuss the fires and expressed grave concerns about the recurring problem, said disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Nugoroho.
“There needs to be a permanent solution so they won’t happen again in the future,” Sutopo quoted the president as saying.
Sutopo said the haze had reached “very dangerous levels”, with visibility in affected areas as low as 300m.
The haze from Indonesia has also travelled to Malaysia and southern Thailand.
The practice of open burning to clear land is illegal, but common, in Indonesia.
The government has warned that the El Nino weather phenomenon, which is expected to last until October, would result in an extended dry spell and more forest fires in the country.
The agriculture ministry has predicted that El Nino could damage 200,000 hectares of rice fields, or about 1-2mn tonnes of rice crops.
