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Haze situation worsens in Indonesia

Source
Straits Times - October 27, 1997

Jakarta – The number of cities covered by the thick haze from rampant forest and bush fires nearly doubled yesterday, amid uncertainty over when the annual monsoon rains would arrive.

Meteorologists said the number of cities covered by the haze rose from 22 to 41 as at yesterday morning, while at least four airports shut down because of poor visibility.

The haze was blanketing large parts of Sumatra island, the Kalimantan region on the Indonesian side of Borneo island and the remote province of Irian Jaya.

"We have reports of two cities in Sumatra which have zero visibility," said an official at Jakarta's National Meteorology Bureau.

UN climate experts in Geneva said on Friday that the dry spell in Indonesia could continue for another three months because of the El Nino phenomenon, a periodic upwelling of warm water in the Pacific Ocean which affects global weather patterns. Dense smoke from forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, particularly from huge deposits of burning peat spewing carbon into the air, has spread a choking haze over large areas of South-east Asia.

The annual rains normally start in September, with full monsoon rains coming in the following month. Only scattered rains have fallen so far, as drought prevails through much of the archipelago stretching 5,000 km along the equator. Residents in Jambi in Sumatra said thick haze had covered the city. "Actually, the situation is a little bit better, maybe because of some rains last night," said one of them. "But still, we cannot see the sun because haze has blocked it. People are wearing masks when outside their homes," he said.

Meanwhile, the governor of Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province says he will not evacuate thousands of villagers suffering from hunger and disease in the mountainous Jayawijaya district for fear of "culture shock".

"The people in the three sub-districts have become inseparable from nature. If they are forced to move, they may suffer culture shock," Governor Jacob Pattipi was yesterday quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.

At least 493 have died of famine or drought-related illnesses in the province and relief efforts have been hampered by a lack of available planes and poor weather conditions, including haze from forest fires.

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