Rains thin haze over Indonesia’s Sumatra, Borneo
The arrival of rains has thinned the haze that has choked millions of Indonesians on Sumatra island and in Indonesian Borneo, meteorology officials said Sunday.
“It is much better now. Not yet really better, but much better than about one or two weeks ago,” said Hidayat, the head of the meteorology station in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan province, which had been for months one of the Indonesian provinces hardest hit by the smoke haze.
Hidayat said since rains began to fall almost every day about five days ago, the haze had thinned in the daytime. At 10:00am (1700 GMT), visibility was at more than 1,000 meters (yards) he said, compared with the few dozen meters on most mornings for the past few months.
“It is not yet entirely gone, but our eyes and throat do not suffer from the haze any longer,” Hidayat said, adding that rains had been of medium intensity and had tended to be local downpours.
In neighboring West Kalimantan, visibility in the capital, Pontianak, has been more than 10,000 meters around noon for the past few days, said Noer, from the local meteorology station.
“One can say that Pontianak has now began to enter the rainy season. It has been raining daily for the past four days,” Noer said.
Tobing, from the meteorology station in Jambi province, said: “We have been having local rains in the past days and that has helped in clearing the sky.”
He added that the nearby airport was operating smoothly after weeks of delays and cancelled flights because of low visibility.
Tarsum, from the meteorology station in Palembang, South Sumatra, said intense rains in the past three to four days had improved visibility to 2,500-plus meters around noon.
The outlawed practice of clearing land by fire for the upcoming planting season has been blamed for the extensive fires that have sent smoke over parts of Indonesia and neighboring countries in recent years. Weak enforcement of the law has allowed it to continue. - AFP