TEMPO.CO, Pekanbaru - Said Saqlul, Chief of the Riau Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) stated that forest fire have torched around 19,538 hectares of land in the region.
Bengkalis suffers the most severe damages after losing 7,836 hectares of land, followed by Meranti that lost 6,339 hectares of land, Rokan Hilir (2,504 hectares), Siak (1,128 hectares), Indragiri Hilir (329 hectares), Kampar (225 hectares), Pelalawan (162 hectares), Dumai (929 hectares), Indragiri Hulu (142 hectares) and Pekanbaru (18 hectares).
According to Said, the heavy rain in Riau over the last three days has helped to extinguish the fire in several hot spots. He added that the NOAA 18 satellite had only detected one hot spot left burning in Indragiri Hilir, while the Tera and Aqua satellites detect zero hot spot. Nevertheless, fire extinguishing efforts are still being carried out until there is no smoke.
Muhammad Herwan, Executive Director of the Riau Chamber of Commerce, said that the forest fires had caused investment and economic losses worth Rp 15 trillion.
Herwan said that the haze has resulted in negative impacts to the region's economic activities such as the closing of the Sultan Syarif Kasim II airport in Pekanbaru, which disrupted dozens of flights. In addition, small and medium enterprises have lost 60 percent of their incomes because many people prefers to stay indoors.
Meanwhile, investment in the plantation and forestry sectors suffered heavy losses as most plantations have been burned to the ground.
RIYAN NOFITRA