Illustration. (Tribun/Galih Nofrio Nanda)

Four airports in Sumatra and Kalimantan are still closed on Saturday due to the thick haze. Meanwhile, authorities in Riau province have said that the haze emergency status will be extended for another month.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that his ministry had maintained the closure of four Sultan Mahmud Badarudin II Airport in Palembang, Syamsudin Noor Airport in Banjarmasin, Sutan Thaha Airport in Jambi and Gusti Syamsir Alam Airport in Kota Baru, South Kalimantan.

'€œFrom the 35 airports affected by the haze, four are not in operation,'€ said Jonan at Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta on Saturday.

According to the minister, many airlines have started to fly to and from Kalimantan and Sumatra airports due to the improved visibility.

Meanwhile, in Pekanbaru, Riau, the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) decided to extend the haze emergency status for another month as there were still hotspots in South Sumatra and significant rainfall has yet to occur.

'€œAll members of the forest firefighting team have agreed that the emergency status will be extended by 30 days to Nov. 30,'€ said Riau BPBD chairman Edward Sanger on Saturday as reported by tempo.co, adding that the decision was made during a meeting on Friday.

The emergency status, which was set to expire on Nov. 1, was extended in anticipation of the possible emergence of new hotspots in Riau forests, considering that forest fires in South Sumatra have not been extinguished, while rainfall was still unpredictable.

'€œWe coordinated with the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) before extending the emergency status,'€ Edward said. According to Edward, members of the team increase their efforts to prevent forest fires during the 30 days of extended emergency period. (bbn)(+)

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