Three-Quarter Of Indonesia Shrouded By Haze

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the current haze disaster has covered three-quarter of Indonesia as smoke from land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan continue to expand.

"Now, more than three-quarter of Indonesia has been covered by thin and thick haze," Head of the Information Data Center and Public Relations of the BNPB Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said here on Sunday.

He said that the image shown by the Himawari satellite from the Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), indicated that more than three-quarter of Indonesian had been covered by smog.

"Regions not covered by haze are only Central Java, Yogyakarta, certain part of East Java, Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, North Maluku and the norther part of Papua," Sutopo said.

He said that visibility at 9 a.m. in Padang was 200 meters, Pekanbaru 1,000 meters, Jambi 900 meters, Palembang 200 meters, Pontianak (West Kalimantan) 800, Palangkaraya (Central Kalimantan) 100 meters and Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan) 400 meters.

House Commission VIII on social affairs has asked the government to take a speed action in handling haze victims as the spread of have is increasing.

"The government should handle the victims in the haze affected regions. It should take a policy to ascertain that all victims are handled," Commission VIII Chairman Saleh Pertaonan Daulay said here on Sunday.

He said he was visiting a number of districts in the southern part of Tapanuli about 300 km from Riau, 650 km from Jambi and 820 km from South Sumatra. The tree provinces were  worst affected by haze that came from forest and land fires.

"The forest and fire triggered haze should become the main priority of the government because it has caused serious and extensive impacts which continue to spread in Sumatra and Kalimantan," he said. (WDY)