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n response to the prolonged haze crisis in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the government has pledged to intensify health assistance for haze victims in the country'€™s worst affected areas while preparing for their evacuation, anticipating worsening air pollution.

Learning from his administration'€™s unsuccessful attempts to put out extensive forest and peat land fires that have produced haze over the past weeks, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo on Friday instructed his ministers to prepare for the evacuation of haze victims, particularly infants and children, in a number of the worst hit provinces, including Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a visit to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Pulang Pisau in Central Kalimantan on Saturday, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, however, explained that the evacuation would be implemented in stages, with the relocation of haze victims from home to local health facilities or evacuation shelters as the first and foremost part of the plan.

'€œWe will ask medical schools to assign their newly graduated physicians to community health centers [Puskesmas] or local hospitals to help run emergency services. ['€¦] We will also ask the Indonesian Military [TNI] to deploy their village supervisory non-commissioned officers [Babinsa] to help local residents take their sick babies to Puskesmas for immediate medical assistance,'€ Luhut said.

The government, according to Luhut, will relocate haze victims to another city should the existing shelters and medical facilities no longer be capable of handling the impact of the haze.

 '€œIf things get worse, we will move the victims to a safer city. If the situation gets worse, then we will put them in warships or ships,'€ he said.

Over the past few months, Indonesia has been struggling to deal with the impacts of haze originating from fires in peat land and plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

 The ongoing haze crisis has also been exacerbated by this year'€™s prolonged dry season that has been triggered by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

Last week the Health Ministry revealed that the haze had caused 425,377 people in six provinces to suffer from acute respiratory infections (ISPA). In Pekanbaru, Riau, at least three people died due to respiratory failure allegedly triggered by the haze that has been blanketing the province for almost two months.

In anticipation of the massive evacuation of haze victims, the government has so far named Banjarmasin as the evacuation city for residents in Central Kalimantan, whose capital of Palangkaraya became the city with the worst air quality in the country last month.

Luhut '€” who was accompanied by Culture and Education Minister Anies Baswedan, Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar during his visit on Saturday to the two neighboring regions '€” said the government was also ready for the worst.

'€œThere will be warships, passenger ships and hospital ships standing by [in Banjarmasin]. This is to show that we understand the problem and are serious about dealing with it,'€ he said.

Minister Khofifah said that her ministry would soon distribute 7,000 air purifiers to residents in Central Kalimantan in an attempt to curb the impact of the haze.

'€œThey can be installed at residents'€™ houses. Hopefully, we won'€™t need to evacuate the residents after all,'€ she said.

Acting South Kalimantan Governor Tarmizi Abdul Karim said that his administration had prepared several government buildings in anticipation of incoming evacuees.

'€œOur biggest evacuation shelter so far is the local haj dormitory, which can accommodate around 700 people,'€ he said.

In North Sumatra, thickening haze forced the management of Kualanamu International Airport in Deli Serdang regency to temporarily halt the operation of the airport on Saturday morning for safety reasons.

The worsening air quality in the provincial capital of Medan also forced the local administration to close down schools, starting from Saturday until sometime next week.

In Papua, Merauke Regional Military Commander, Brig. Gen. Supartodi said the TNI had deployed 100 military personnel from Timika to Merauke to help extinguish hot spots in the regency, which have triggered haze in surrounding areas over the past several days.