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View all search resultsHaze drives surge in respiratory illnesses in Indonesia
Children accounted for around 20 percent of all wildfire-related respiratory illnesses as 12.5 million people in seven provinces were affected by the widespread forest and land fire, according to the Health Ministry.
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Manggala Agni forest firefighting personnel ride on a boat on Thursday to reach the forest and land fire inside the Padang Sugihan animal sanctuary in Ogan Komering Ilir regency, South Sumatra. (Antara/Nova Wahyudi)
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preading forest and peatland fires in Indonesia have caused people to fall sick, as haze from hundreds of thousands of burned lands across the country worsen air quality in many regions and trigger respiratory infections among people.
Three regencies in Central Kalimantan recorded the worst air quality, according to data from Environment Ministry’s air quality monitoring platform as of Friday at 7 p.m.
East Kotawaringin, Katingan and Gunung Mas regencies scored 750, 629 and 394, respectively, in the ministry’s Air Pollutant Standard Index (ISPU), which determines the air quality in a location and its impact to human health. Under the classification, readings above 300 are considered hazardous, with pollutants posing severe health risks to humans and other creatures.
Central Kalimantan is among the worst hit regions in this year’s wildfire season, which is supercharged by drier air caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon over the Pacific Ocean. Around 68,300 hectares of land in the province, the same size as one Jakarta, were burned from January to August, according to data from independent forest monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas.
Overall, the platform found around 895,657 ha of land across the country had been burned between January and the end of August, 34 percent higher than the figure in the same period in 2019, when the country was also impacted by El Niño.
With haze blanketing more parts of the country, more people are falling sick with acute respiratory infections.
The Health Ministry’s data per Sept. 9 showed 113,336 cases recorded in seven fire-affected regions, including Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Jambi and South Sumatra. The figure doubled from 50,891 recorded on Sept. 1.
