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Haze could hit S’pore over next few days, Indonesia warns

JAKARTA — Indonesia has warned that smoke from forest fires in Riau province could head towards Singapore and Malaysia in the next few days due to a change in wind direction.

A helicopter operated by Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) sprays water on a fire in Kampar, Riau province on Aug 29, 2016. Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported findings of 138 hot spots around the country on Aug 29, eighty-five of them were found in Riau, producing enough haze to blow to Singapore. Photo: AFP

A helicopter operated by Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) sprays water on a fire in Kampar, Riau province on Aug 29, 2016. Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported findings of 138 hot spots around the country on Aug 29, eighty-five of them were found in Riau, producing enough haze to blow to Singapore. Photo: AFP

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JAKARTA — Indonesia has warned that smoke from forest fires in Riau province could head towards Singapore and Malaysia in the next few days due to a change in wind direction.

The country’s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG) said in a statement on its website on Tuesday (Aug 30) that the fires are concentrated in a wide area in the western part of the province on Sumatra island.

“Forest fires in the West Sumatra region will be monitored closely, particularly over the next five days as the situation is delicate,” it said, adding that as the winds turn and blow eastwards, the smoke might head towards Malaysia and Singapore.

The agency said it will keep a close watch on other high-risk areas in Aceh, Bengkulu, Jambi, and part of South Sumatra, and also warned ththere could be more fires in Central and West Kalimantan in the next few days due to adverse weather conditions there.

Riau is one of several provinces which has declared a state of emergency, and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said this has allowed the agency to respond more quickly to forest fires than last year.

An official at the BNPB operations centre in Jakarta told TODAY that measures taken to fight the fires in these provinces — which include Jambi in Central Sumatra and Central, West and South Kalimantan — include water bombing with air-tractors, helicopters as well as cloud seeding to induce rain.

“BNPB is still carrying out these actions to stop the forest fires from spreading. 45 per cent of the fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan are in peatland areas,” he said, adding that the fires were caused by a combination of dry weather conditions, sporadic rain and illegal use of fire to clear lands.

According to the official, ground units comprising police officers, army personnel, firefighters, volunteers and workers have also been activated to help snuff out forest fires at affected areas.

He added that in Sumatra, more than 50 hectares of land is still burning and producing thick smoke.

BMKG forecaster Andersen Panjaitan told TODAY that the latest imagery from the Himawari satellite shows that the situation in Sumatra has improved in recent days due to rain over the past two days.

“Based on our observation the smoke is less intense today due to heavy rain in the province,” Mr Panjaitan added.

Malaysia, Singapore and parts of Thailand suffered the worst haze outbreak in years from September to November last year. The crisis affected tens of millions of people, forcing school closures and caused thousands to fall sick across the region.

Singapore’s air quality hit the “unhealthy” range on the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) last Friday but on Indonesia’s BNPB on Monday said it was confident the country’s forest fires and haze of toxic smoke are unlikely to reach levels seen in 2015 because of favourable weather conditions and a quicker emergency response.

“We are certain this year things will be better,” agency spokesman Sutopo Nugroho told reporters on Monday, referring to a 61 per cent reduction in hotspots seen in 2016 compared with a year ago. AGENCIES

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