Haze in central Borneo raises number of asthma patients
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
August 23, 2001
JAKARTA, Aug 23 - Haze from forest and ground fires is worsening in Indonesia's province of Central Kalimantan on Borneo island causing more people to seek treatment for respiratory complaints, a doctor said Thursday.
Forest and ground fires were also detected in West and East Kalimantan on the island.
"The quality of the air is definitely worsening, although only the particle content of the air has exceeded the normal health standard," said Jono Kusanto, a doctor specialising in respiratory problems, from the province's main town Palangkaraya. He told AFP the number of patients complaining of asthma had jumped in the past few days to around 10-15 each day from the customary one or two.
The meteorology office in Palangkaraya said visibility early Thursday was only around 10 metres (34 feet.)
Antara news agency said several fires could be seen from the main road to the airport.
A provincial forestry official quoted by Antara said most of the hotspots, areas of high temperatures indicating possible fires, were in peatland in the southwestern coastal plains.
Fires have also been consuming forest and bushland in East Kalimantan and have neared one of the country's orangutan rehabilitation centres.
"We have begun to see forest and ground fires in the region since about a month ago. Nowadays we have to cope with several fires in the area at the same time," said Jean Mandala, spokeswoman for the Wanariset Sambodja centre.
She said the centre's fire brigade had cleared firebreaks and extinguished one blaze on Wednesday just 500 metres (yards) away.
In West Kalimantan, a meteorology official in the provincial capital Pontianak said visibility has been below 500 metres for the past three days.
Smoke from the Indonesian section of Borneo forced the cancellation of flights in Malaysia's neighbouring Sarawak state last week.
Environmental watchdogs and officials blame cultivators using fire to clear land for crops. They say both large-scale operators and small farmers are responsible.
The end of the rainy season in some parts of Indonesia has since June led to the return of the fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra island. The haze has affected Sumatra and parts of Malaysia and Thailand.
Thick haze from Sumatra and Kalimantan shrouded the region's skies in 1997-1998 for months, causing major health and traffic problems.