The Worst Disaster of 2015 Repeated

KOMPAS/SUCIPTO

A fire hose lays coiled atop a pile of dry twigs and brush on Friday (13/9/2019) as faint smoke rises from the peatlands along the border of Petung village and Giripurwa village in Penajam district, North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan. A firefighting team comprising 210 people equipped with only 20 hoses was deployed to extinguish the fire in the regency, which has burned 100 hectares of peatlands this month.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The haze disaster caused by forest and peatland fires is nearing the worst since 2015. The thick smoke, which has reached a level dangerous to health in a number of Sumatra and Kalimantan regions has begun to affect neighboring countries.

The smoke movement analysis conducted by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) on Friday detected the smoke distribution in Riau, Riau Islands, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan.

In fact, the smoke condition monitored in Pekanbaru (Riau), Padang (West Sumatra), and Sampit (Central Kalimantan) has reached a level that is dangerous to human health.

Due to haze, local governments in a number of areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan have closed schools. The haze has also disrupted flight activities at a number of airports, including in Pekanbaru and Balikpapan.

KOMPAS/SUCIPTO

A firefighter tackles a peatland fire on Friday (13/9/2019) along the border of Petung village and Giripurwa village in Penajam district, North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan. The fires raging in North Penajam Paser have gutted 100 hectares of peatlands this month.

The smoke from peat land fires in the country have even spread to neighboring countries. According to the monitoring, the smoke has crossed national borders (trans boundary haze) and spread from Sumatra to the Strait of Malacca and Peninsular Malaysia, and from West Kalimantan to Sarawak, Malaysia.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has disclosed his intention to send a letter to the Indonesian government. Malaysian Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin on Thursday said he and the prime minister had discussed the haze problem. "He agreed to send a letter to President Joko Widodo to pay attention to this cross-border haze problem," he said.

Due to the thick smoke, Malaysia has also closed hundreds of schools and distributed half a million masks in Sarawak this week. Putrajaya administrative area in Kuala Lumpur was also covered by thick haze on Wednesday (11/9). The Malaysian government plans to make artificial rain to eliminate the haze.

Almost every dry season, Indonesia\'s neighboring countries are wary of the possibility of cross-border haze from Indonesia. In addition to having a negative impact on health, the haze also hits the tourism sector. "The Indonesian government must be responsible for the haze in Sarawak," said the deputy chief minister of Sarawak, James Jemut Anak.

The hotspots were not only monitored in the Indonesian territory, but also in the Malaysian region. Based on the Himawari-8 Satellite imagery and BMKG Geohotspot analysis on Sept.12, 2019 released on

Friday as many as 1,231 hotspots were found in Sumatra, 1,865 hotspots in Kalimantan, 412 hotspots in Peninsular Malaysia and 216 hotspots in Sarawak-Sabah.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Wednesday, was upset with the Malaysian government’s statement on Sept. 7-8 related to the smoke "shipment" from Indonesia. Moreover, hotspots were detected also in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.

"As fellow ASEAN countries, it is not a problem if they help each other. However, this method of addressing the issue is politically is not good. So I raised an objection," he said.

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Hundreds of civil servants and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel hold a mass prayer asking for rain on Wednesday (11/9/2019) at the Riau governor\'s office. Forest fires in the region have contributed to worsening haze over Riau’s capital city of Pekanbaru, which declared the haze a health hazard and closed all schools.

Haze disaster emergency

The condition of the haze this time is reminiscent of the smoke disaster in 2015. The disaster at that time was recorded as the worst since the first time Kompas reported on forest and land fires in the country in 1967.

Four years ago, the smoke disaster emergency status was declared in six provinces, including Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan. President Jokowi, who was on a working visit to the United States at the time, decided to cut short his visit to lead the disaster management.

At the current haze problem, not one area in the country has declared an emergency status due to the haze. The head of the Sumatra Ecoregion Development Control Center, Amral Fery, when contacted in Pekanbaru, said that the government needed to immediately establish a disaster emergency status.

"Based on Government Regulation No. 41 of 1999 concerning Air Pollution Control, in the event that the Air Pollution Standards Index (ISPU) has reached a dangerous level, decision makers in the regions should immediately determine the emergency status on air pollution. When the ISPU has reached a dangerous level, infants and pregnant women must be evacuated to a safe place " Amral said.

KOMPAS/JUMARTO YULIANUS

Motorists drive through thick haze blanketing Jl. Ahmad Yani on Wednesday morning (11/9/2019) near Banjarmasin Syamsudin Noor Airport in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan.

The government’s efforts to put out fires have not been able to stop the spread of fires. As of January 2019, the burned area has reached 326,728 hectares or five times the area of Jakarta. Law enforcement was also carried out, including sealing land concessions held by 11 corporations in Riau allegedly involved in causing the fires. ( SAH/ RAM/ ESA/JOL)