Hazardous Air Quality Persists In Indonesia's Kalimantan, Sumatra, 354 Fire Hotspots Detected
JAKARTA, Oct 17 (NNN) -- Very unhealthy to hazardous air quality continues to affect parts of Indonesia's Kalimantan and Sumatra islands, with 354 high-confidence fire hotspots detected nationwide amid ongoing forest and land firefighting operations.
Indonesia's Forestry Ministry said the latest air quality monitoring by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) showed that severe pollution persisted in several fire-affected provinces.
“BMKG monitoring shows that very unhealthy and hazardous air quality conditions continue to affect Central Kalimantan and several areas in South Kalimantan. In Sumatra, similar conditions persist in South Sumatra and Jambi,” the ministry said in its latest update posted on social media.
Data from the ministry's monitoring system showed that the number of hotspots fell by 445, or 55.7 per cent, from 799 on Thursday to 354 as of 9 pm local time on Friday.
South Sumatra recorded the highest number of hotspots at 132, up from 122 on Thursday, while Central Kalimantan saw a sharp decline from 389 to 19. West Kalimantan recorded 24 hotspots and Jambi two, while none were detected in South Kalimantan and Riau.
The ministry said 61 aircraft remained deployed for firefighting and related operations, comprising 44 for water bombing and 17 for aerial patrols and weather modification, with 55 assigned to priority fire-affected provinces and six deployed elsewhere.
Separately, local media reported on Friday that smoke from forest fires had reached the atmosphere over Jakarta, Banten and West Java, citing BMKG. Two domestic flights between Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and Ternate in North Maluku were also reportedly cancelled due to poor visibility caused by haze.
According to the Jakarta Environmental Agency’s official air quality monitoring website, several areas in the capital recorded unhealthy air quality on Saturday morning, with an Air Pollutant Standard Index (ISPU) reading of 156 in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, as of 6.30 am local time.
--NNN
