Pollution leads to school closures in two Borneo cities

The air pollution index in Palangka Raya, the capital of Borneo’s Central Kalimantan province, hit 500 or “dangerous” on Sunday, data from Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry showed.An official said yesterday that schools in Palangka Raya and another city, Sampit, would be shut throughout the week, in line with instructions circulated by Central Kalimantan’s governor on Friday.

“From our observation, the smoke is very thick in Palangka Raya and Sampit, ” Slamet Winaryo, the head of Central Kalimantan’s education agency, said by telephone. “We have decided to give one week off from Monday to Saturday for the students in both locations, ” he said.Winaryo added that other schools in Central Kalimantan would start half an hour later.Indonesia’s environment minister said on Friday that some forest fires in its territory had started on land used by subsidiaries of Malaysian companies, as the neighbours traded blame for blazes that have spread haze across the region.

Indonesian authorities have urged Central Kalimantan residents to refrain from outdoor activities or to wear a mask due to the severe pollution. “There are many hotspots in Kalimantan. Those are high-category hotspots, ” Agus Wibowo, the country’s disaster mitigation agency spokesman, said. — Reuters

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