Haze from forest fires still blankets Sumatra, Batam islands
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The situation is exacerbated by the Prabowo administration’s lack of action to extinguish the fires.
PHOTO: AFP
- Haze from forest and land fires has worsened air quality in Sumatra and Batam. BMKG called conditions “unhealthy” and warned children and older people to stay indoors.
- North Sumatra ordered distance learning for all schools from Oct 16 to 21. Governor Bobby Nasution said the move was to protect students and staff from health problems.
- The haze has disrupted flights, cut visibility, and raised respiratory infections to 27,250 in North Sumatra. Riau ended cloud seeding and moved a rain-making plane to Lampung to fight fires there.
AI generated
JAKARTA – Air quality in Batam worsened on Oct 18 after haze from forest and land fires arrived on mainland Sumatra Island, while the Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) declared air quality on the island as “unhealthy”.
North Sumatra had, meanwhile, ordered distance learning for all school levels to start on Oct 16 due to the haze covering all regions in the province and a rain-making plane has been transferred to Lampung to help extinguish forest and land fires in Riau.