Posted 15 July 2007 @ 16:21
JAKARTA, 15 July 2007 - Smoke from land-clearing forest fires disrupts flights serving the Indonesian part of Borneo as the country enters the dry season, according to a local official on Sunday. The haze covered the city of Pontianak in the western part of the island for the last two days, delaying flights on Sunday morning because of the reduced visibility, reported local airport chief Syamsul Bachrie.
Haze from forest fires - often deliberately lit by land and plantation owners to clear land in a cheap way - has become a regular problem for large parts of Southeast Asia over the last ten years. "For safety reasons, no flights were made this morning," said Bachrie, but added visibility had improved by midday and flights resumed over the rest of the day. He told that based on past experiences however that haze would be disrupting flights for at least the next few days.
Indonesia has predicted that the haze would be reduced this year because of greater efforts to combat fires. The annual smog caused health problems and billions of dollars in losses from declining tourism revenues and flight delays, also in countries around Indonesia. Indonesia is the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, mostly due to these fires according to scientists.
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