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Forest fires continue wreaking havoc on public life, health
Efforts to extinguish forest fires engulfing parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan have yielded few results, with air quality in some cities deteriorating to levels unsafe for schooling and travel.
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Smoke envelopes the site of wildfires on Mount Lawu in Ngawi, East Java, as witnessed from nearby Karanggubito village on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. According to data from authorities tasked with putting out the fires, more than 400 hectares of forest cover on Lawu has been set ablaze since Sept. 29, bringing the total area of forest lost to fire to around 1,100 hectares since Aug. 30. (Antara/Siswowidodo)
Efforts to extinguish forest and land fires engulfing parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan over the past week have yielded scanty results, with the air quality deteriorating to levels unsafe for activities such as schooling and travel and local officials noting an uptick in respiratory ailments.
Neighbors Malaysia and Singapore set up precautions over the weekend amid Indonesia’s refusal to be flagged as the originator of the transboundary haze, as the government struggles with a prolonged dry spell triggered by the El Niño climate phenomenon.
According to the ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center (ASMC), as many as 122 active hotspots were recorded in Kalimantan and 121 in Sumatra on Sunday.
And though the number of hotspots in Kalimantan has dipped since Saturday, Environment and Forestry Ministry data from Sunday night suggests that Central Kalimantan’s score for the Air Pollution Standard Index had reached 338. A score over 301 is categorized as “hazardous”, marked as potentially causing “serious health damage and requiring immediate handling”.
Air quality in North Kalimantan, bordering Malaysia, has similarly deteriorated, with the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) on Monday issuing a face mask order as a precautionary measure.
Satellite data showed active hotspots in Central, South and East Kalimantan, the BMKG added, with visibility dropping from a range of 4,000 to 3,000 meters in under two hours as of noon on Monday.
Meanwhile, schoolchildren in Jambi in central Sumatra are receiving virtual instruction starting Monday, affecting more than 760,000 students in the provincial capital, Jambi City.
