TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-The Head of Public Relations department of the Environment and Forestry Ministry, Eka W. Soegiri, said that thin haze covering Java Sea and some parts of Jakarta are probably the result of air pollution in Jakarta, not the haze spread from the fire in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
“Based on the wind direction, the haze of fire goes north, it’s not supposed to reach Java Island,” he said on the phone to Tempo on Sunday, October 25.
According to Eka, there hasn’t been any direct confirmation from Indonesia Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG) about the origin of thin haze around Jakarta. The haze is claimed to be the combination of high pollution in Jakarta and the current temperature.
“Maybe the haze is the result of rotated pollution. We could see Mt. Salak from the airplane which about to land in Jakarta, now we can’t.”
Eka added, haze movement in Sumatra and Kalimantan goes north and west. It started to have the impact in Aceh and North Sumatra, as on Sunday morning the haze blocked the view and shut down Kualanamu Airport in Medan.
YOHANES PASKALIS
