Haze Reduce Visibility in Pekanbaru to 50-70 Meters

Pekanbaru, Riau (Antara) - Haze from forest and plantation fires reduced the visibility in Pekanbaru to around 50 and 70 meters on Sunday morning. "The weather today is very bad because of the thick haze. The government has set up a haze emergency task force and conducted cloud seeding to make rains, but, in fact, the haze in Riau is getting ticker," Hendri, a motorist, said. A number of shops on Tuanku Tambusai road were closed due to the thick haze that could affect people's health. Pekanbaru has been blanketed by haze over the last one month. Head of the Riau Haze Emergency Response Task Force Brigadier General Prihadi Agus Irianto said that fires had scorched a total of 13,009 hectares of forest and plantation areas in Riau over the past six weeks. The task force has managed to extinguish fires on 10,618 hectares of forest, plantations, and peatland areas, but most the the areas still produced smog. Of the 11,138 hectares of forest area that were razed by fires across the Riau province, about 3,000 hectares were located inside the GSK-BB biosphere reserve, Brigadier General Prihadi Agus Irianto, the head of the Riau Haze Disaster Response Task Force, said in Pekanbaru in Riau on Tuesday (March 4). (*)