Jakarta Hazy from Pollution
10/1/97
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Headline: Jakarta Hazy from Pollution
Source: Reuters
Date: 10/1/97
Copyright: Reuters Limited 1997
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's capital Jakarta was blanketed by a thick
haze on Wednesday, but meteorologists said it was the result of dust mixed
with water particles, rather than smoke from forest fires.
"Jakarta is hazy today because of dust from pollution which is mixed with
water particles in the air, creating haze. It has nothing to do with the
forest fires," a meteorological official said.
Fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of the vast Borneo
Island, have created health-threatening smog which has hit Malaysia,
Singapore and Brunei and reached as far as the Philippines and Thailand.
Jakarta, host to 4,300 athletes participating in the 19th South East Asian
Games which will last through Saturday, has been hit in recent days by
smoke from bush fires in central and eastern Java. It is also seriously
affected on a daily basis by petrochemical smog from vehicle exhaust
fumes.
Many of the athletes from the 10 countries in the region brought smog
masks with them, although ironically the smoke haze in Jakarta has been much
less than in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
The U.N. World Meteorological Organisation predicts that monsoon rains,
due this month, will be delayed until November because of the El Nino weather
pattern which has disrupted climates around the world and prompted severe
drought in Indonesia.
U.N. disaster experts said in Geneva on Tuesday the worst of the forest
fires appeared to be over in Indonesia, but they warned that the crisis
would continue until delayed rains finally arrive.
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