Thick Haze Covers Sumatra's Riau Province

Pekanbaru, Riau (Antara Bali)- Riau province in Sumatra was covered by the thickest haze in the past few weeks on Sunday although only six fires are found there.

According to the local office of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) the smog emerged due to smoke from forest and land fires coming from several regions in Sumatra.

"The condition now is worse," head of the local BMKG station, Sugarin, said through an e-mail received by Antara.

Almost all districts and cities Riau were covered by thick smog with the worst condition being found in four districts and city like Pekanbaru where visibility was recorded at only 300 meter on 07.00 hours.

Visibility in Rengat meanwhile was recorded at 100 meter, Dumai 300 meter and Pelalawan 100 meter, Sugarin said.

He said he believed due to the smog flight activities at Sultan Syarif Kasim II airport in Pekanbaru and Pinang Kampai airport in Dumai would be disrupted.

Sugarin said the smog covering Riau happened due to fires that are still continuing in Sumatra.

Based on satellite monitoring a total of 1,199 hot spots were detected in Sumatra.

The biggest hot spots were found in South Sumatra totaling 1,045 and in Jambi there are 96, Lampung 35, Bangka-Belitu7ng 15, Riau six, Riau Islands and North Sumatra one respectively.  

Sugarin said the number of fires rose again in Sumatra due to minimum rain in a number of provinces on the island. (WDY)