Sawt Falasteen - Indonesia escalates battle against fires, putrid haze

More than five million people on Borneo and Sumatra islands were directly exposed to the risks of a putrid haze coming off dozens of fires across the vast archipelago, according to deputy health minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono.

Some 13,500 people were treated for respiratory infections in July and August, Dante said.

Several schools had been closed intermittently and the haze has also made people in Singapore and Malaysia unwell.

"Vulnerable groups that must be evaluated are children, the elderly, pregnant women with asthma and outdoor workers," Dante said.

NGOs have set up two shelters in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan on Borneo island, for babies and children affected by the haze, with more planned.

The shelters, which can accommodate only five children at a time, were equipped with baby formula and oxygen tanks, medicines, and a playground.

Katharina Abi, 30, brought her two small children, aged one and five, to one of the shelters on Friday as thick smoke blanketed their home.

"There's a lot of smoke at my house. In the morning it's not too bad, but in the afternoon and evening there's so much dust, like there's a fire nearby. It really bothers my breathing," she told AFP.

"My children often have coughs and colds, maybe because there is a lot of smoke."

- 'Godzilla' El Nino -

Dante said prolonged exposure to toxic air can cause serious longer-term health complications.

He said the ministry has distributed more than five million masks across Indonesia -- a country of 289 million people dealing with the effects of a super-charged El Nino weather event dubbed "Godzilla".

Disaster agency BNPB said on Friday the government has intensified efforts to battle wildfires, with some success.

"Cloud seeding remains one of the measures to support efforts to tackle forest and land fires. Its implementation depends heavily on atmospheric conditions and the presence of rain-bearing clouds in the target areas," BNPB spokesman Berton Suar Pelita Panjaitan told AFP.

"However, cloud seeding is not the only effort, because the ground and air task forces continue working in the field to carry out extinguishing and cooling operations," he said.

The agency said it has poured more than four million litres of water on burning areas in the recent weeks, and on Wednesday alone it scattered more than 8,000 kilograms of salt onto clouds.

Cloud seeding involves sprinkling silver iodide, salts or other particles into clouds to trigger precipitation.

Such operations this week succeeded in prompting light to moderate rains over east and south Sumatra and west Kalimantan, Berton said.

Fires between January and July burned more than 200,000 hectares of land -- an area three times the size of the capital Jakarta, the government said last week.

That is more than during previous El Nino seasons in 2019 and 2023.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure and rainfall patterns -- typically experienced as drought in Indonesia.

Many wildfires in Indonesia are blamed on slash-and-burn land-clearing practices for agriculture.

"We hope the government will immediately address the root causes behind the haze that returns every year," Indra Syahnanda of the WALHI environmental advocacy group told AFP.

"The people of West Kalimantan remain haunted by the haze and have to breathe unhealthy air."

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST