Indonesia preparing warships to evacuate haze refugees as pollution spreads

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Indonesia preparing warships to evacuate haze refugees as pollution spreads to Philippines

Six warships and two state-owned ferries are being readied as a last resort

PUBLISHED : Friday, 23 October, 2015, 3:53pm
UPDATED : Friday, 23 October, 2015, 6:21pm

Agencies in Jakarta

Indonesian soldiers arrive at a military airport to strengthen the firefighting team in Palembang. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia was preparing warships as a last resort to evacuate children and others suffering from smoke inhalation from slash-and-burn fires, a minister said on Friday, as the country struggled to contain fires expected to continue for weeks.

The plans were being drawn up as the haze spread to the southern Philippines, disrupting air traffic and prompting warnings for residents to wear face masks.

Southeast Asia has suffered for years from annual “haze” caused by forest and peat clearing across Indonesia, which has come under increasing political pressure to stop the problem, but so far to no avail.

Indonesian men put out a fire in Ogan Ilir, southern Sumatra. Photo: AFP

Fires this year have been helped by drier weather brought by the El Nino weather phenomenon and have pushed air pollution to hazardous levels across Southeast Asia, forcing schools to close and disrupting flights.

“We are looking for a place for babies to be evacuated to if necessary,” coordinating security minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters referring to plans to prepare six warships and two state-owned ferries.

The ships, however, will only be used as a last resort if other efforts, including moving residents to government offices with air purifiers, proved unsuccessful, Pandjaitan said.

The former general, who has been tasked by President Joko Widodo to oversee the response to the haze, said the country was treating the issue as a national disaster but stopped short of declaring a state of national emergency.

Indonesia earlier this month asked several countries, including neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia and far-flung Russia, for aid, equipment and personnel to help combat the fires.

A man covers his face as haze shrouds the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: EPA

Noting the success of Russia’s Be200 water bomber, Panjaitan said he had requested similar aircraft assistance from Canada, the United States and France.

The fires are spreading to new areas like Papua and are unlikely to be put out until next year, experts say.

Widodo said no new permits would be given to plantation companies to develop peatland, and that the government would work to restore and re-irrigate drained peatland areas that are often hit by fires.

“This situation is having a major impact and has reached very unhealthy levels,” he said, referring to thousands of fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Garuda said the haze had cost the state airline about US$8 million in lost sales and other expenses, with 120,000 passengers cancelling flights last month alone.

Aviation as far away as the Philippines was also being disrupted. The large southern Philippine island of Mindanao is more than 1,200km from the nearest fires but the haze had become a worsening problem over the past week, aviation authorities said.

Thick haze, believed to be from Indonesia’s forest fires, engulfs the city of Davao, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Photo: AFP

Two domestic flights had been cancelled and dozens delayed at 10 airports on Mindanao since October 16, affecting thousands of passengers, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines spokesman Eric Apolonio said.

Apolonio said, on some occasions, pilots could not see the airstrip as they were coming into land.

“If you cannot see the runway it is very dangerous. You cannot always depend on instruments,” he said.

Dense haze hung like a cloud of dust over Davao, Mindanao’s largest city with 1.5 million people, on Friday afternoon, plunging it under an early twilight.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters