T

he number of hot spots across West Kalimantan province has been growing since early this week with some 400 of them detected on Tuesday, increasing from only 140 the previous day.

Despite the high number of hot spots, thick haze was nevertheless not seen in Pontianak, the provincial capital, or in the surrounding regions, thanks to rain of light to medium capacity that has fallen on the areas for the last three weeks.

Giri Darmono of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said West Kalimantan never experienced full rainy or dry seasons given its location on the equator.

“The dry season here is called the wet dry because there is always a possibility for rain to fall, like what happened in the last three weeks,” Giri said.

As of 6 a.m. on Tuesday, he said, 403 hot spots were detected across the province in eight of its 14 regencies and cities. The highest number of hot spots was detected in Ketapang regency, which had 172, followed by Melawi with 78, Sintang with 57, Sekadau with 42 and others with less than 25.

Giri said haze had not yet affected visibility. Between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. visibility was recorded at between 2,000 and 3,000 meters and it returned to a normal 10,000 meters after 8 a.m.

The West Kalimantan Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BPBD) emergency and logistics division head, Bosman D. Hutahaean, said four helicopters had been deployed to water bomb the area.

A Casa 212 had been in operation to spread 12,800 kilograms of salt for cloud seeding to help speed up the rains.

“Today water bombings will be conducted over the North Kayong, Ketapang and Sanggau regencies with maximum flight capabilities of three-and-a-half hours,” Bosman said.

Of the 14 regencies and cities in West Kalimantan, 10 have declared emergency alert statuses for forest and land fires. Also, as many as 3,500 personnel had been deployed to fight the fires.

Provisional data showed that 600.6 hectares of forest and land had caught on fire throughout 2016 so far. They comprised 509 hectares of land belonging to individuals, 1.6 hectares of plantations and 90 hectares of conservation area.

Separately, National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, in his release on Monday, said the source of fires came from land clearing for plantations and agriculture in the Sekadau, Ketapang, Landak and Sanggau regencies.

He said thin haze was also spotted in the Katingan regency in Central Kalimantan.

Meanwhile, light and medium intensity rains helped provinces of East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and North Kalimantan keep free from smoky haze, allowing residents to enjoy clean air.

“It is very likely that this year will be safe [from haze], but we will always be on alert over potential land and forest fires,” said Nunuk Kasiyanto, a volunteer firefighter.

The head of the Balikpapan BMKG, Imam Mashudi, described the continuing rainfall during the dry season that had occurred since early this year as a “wet dry season”.