Smoke from land and forest fires that has blanketed Sumatra and Kalimantan has continued to intensify over the past few days, forcing local administrations to take drastic measures to curb the impact of the problem, including asking the central government to intervene in the handling of the disaster.

After battling the impact of thick haze that has enveloped the province over the past several weeks, acting Riau Governor Arsyadjuliandi '€œAndi'€ Rachman on Monday issued a gubernatorial decree declaring an emergency status regarding air pollution in Riau, the country'€™s top oil-producing region.

Speaking at a press conference, Andi said the decision had been taken at a closed-door meeting attended by officials from the provincial administration and related ministries.

The main driver of the emergency status, he said, was the level of the pollutant standards index (PSI) in the province that had remained above 300 over the past three days.

'€œIt [indicates] that the air quality is at a dangerous level. Until recently, the [index] also touched the 300 [level] but kept fluctuating,'€ he said.

Local authorities, according to Andi, are no longer capable of dealing with the haze as land and forest fires, the source of the problem, are not only located in Riau province.

Quoting data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Andi said that as of Monday morning 982 hot spots had been detected across Sumatra. Of that number, 618 and 184 were in neighboring South Sumatra and Jambi provinces, respectively.

'€œWind has brought the haze from the south [of Sumatra] toward the north and west. The haze concentrating in Riau has increased the PSI level to a dangerous level,'€ he said.

The 2007 Disaster Mitigation Law stipulates that a governor, regent or mayor has the authority to declare disaster emergency status in his or her respective jurisdiction.

Article 50 of the law also stipulates that under disaster emergency status, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and its regional offices (BPBD) are given access to the deployment of, among other things, human resources, logistics, goods and services to provide immediate assistance in the affected area.

Riau, along with Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan, are the provinces hardest hit by the air pollution originating from fires in peat land and plantations.

Apart from creating health problems and disrupting the operation of local airports, the fires have also caused air quality levels in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia to deteriorate to alarming levels.

Separately, Riau Health Agency head Andra Sjafril said that more than 25,000 people in the province'€™s 12 regions had recently suffered from haze-related diseases, with the majority of them suffering from acute respiratory infection (ISPA).

In Jambi municipality, the local health agency reported on Monday that the intensifying haze in the city had caused an almost 10-fold increase in the number of ISPA patients, from 2,849 patients in August to 20,741 over the first two weeks of this month.

Last week, a two-year-old infant and a 15-year-old schoolgirl from the city died after experiencing acute respiratory problems.

There have been similar health issues in Medan, North Sumatra.

'€œI'€™ve been suffering from a cough for a week. I finally visited the nearest Puskesmas (community health center) as the cough won'€™t go away,'€ Medan resident Ismail told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that 22,855 people in South Sumatra and 53,442 people in South Kalimantan had suffered from ISPA.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar, the coordinator of the newly established national haze emergency taskforce, said that as of Monday, 18 million liters of water had been dropped in water-bombing operations over Riau and 12 million liters over South Sumatra. Over 120 tons of salt flares have been fired into clouds to trigger rain in Riau, while 56 tons have been released into the air in Jambi and South Sumatra in cloud-seeding operations.

In response to worsening haze, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, who was touring the Middle East on Monday, asked regional administrations to improve health services in the affected areas and instructed law enforcement to take stern legal action against all parties, including forest concession owners, deemed responsible for the land and forest fires.

'€œOnce again, I want to emphasize that legal action against [the responsible parties] will be taken very firmly,'€ he said.

- Jon Afrizal in Jambi, Apriadi Gunawan in Medan and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb in Padang also contributed to this article.

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