Fires under Control but Still Dangerous
10/23/97
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Headline: Fires under Control but Still Dangerous
Source: Reuters
Date: 10/23/97
Byline: Jim Della-Giacoma
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
JAKARTA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Indonesian forest and brush
fires are gradually being brought under control, but smog from
months of burning is still posing problems at home and abroad, a
senior environmental official said on Thursday.
Yon Artiono Arba'i, director for environmental degradation
control at the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal),
said disciplined local efforts had controlled many fires but a
lack of rain meant the smog had yet to disperse.
``In west and south Kalimantan and south Sumatra the smoke
is more dense than last September, but the fires are much less
and mostly in the peat,'' Arba'i told Reuters.
Indonesian satellite data showed hot spots, most probably
fires, concentrated mostly in south Sumatra as well as central
and south Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo island.
Bapedal data on Thursday showed eight of the 13 regional
airports monitored daily for the effects of smog were closed
with visibility as low as 50 metres (yards) in Jambi in the
centre of Sumatra island.
Visibility was only marginally better in neighbouring
Palembang in South Sumatra province and Palangkaraya in central
Kalimantan at 100 metres.
The smog, generated mostly by the use of fire for clearing
land for agricultural purposes over the dry season, has again
afflicted Singapore this week.
The Pollutants Standard Index (PSI), which rises as air
quality worsens, was at 167 at 0700 GMT, up from 109 seven hours
earlier, Singapore's Ministry of Environment said -- its highest
level this week.
Wind charts from Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics
Agency showed medium-altitude winds heading west from Kalimantan
across the South China Sea in the direction of Singapore at
speeds of up to 36 km per hour.
Charts from Singapore's weather forecasters also showed
surface winds heading from smog-covered Sumatra in the direction
of the island city.
``The smoke has accumulated in south and west Kalimantan.
There has not been rain every day and it has not been enough to
extinguish all the fires,'' Arba'i said.
``The wind from Kalimantan is bringing the accumulated smoke
to the west to Singapore,'' he said.
The smog has been blamed for a number of transport accidents
as well as adversely affecting the health of more than 20
million Indonesians.
Twenty-eight people died on Sunday on a river in central
Kalimantan when two boats collided in thick smog from forest
fires.
In September, a Garuda Indonesia aircraft smashed into a
hillside plantation near Medan, the capital of North Sumatra,
while flying through smog, killing all 234 people on board.
Indonesia's official Antara news agency quoted Environment
Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja as saying this week the smog
remained at a dangerous level across the country.
``Although it is diminishing, it still remains dangerous,''
Kusumaatmadja said on Tuesday in Bandung, West Java.
Dense smoke from forest fires on Sumatra island and in
Kalimantan has spread smog over much of Southeast Asia in recent
weeks.
The fires, many started by plantation owners clearing land,
have been aggravated by a severe drought that led to more than
460 deaths through famine and disease in Irian Jaya, on
Indonesia's side of New Guinea island.
The U.N. World Meteorological Organisation has predicted
monsoon rains, originally due this month, will arrive only in
November.
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