Desperation in the epicentre of Southeast Asia’s haze crisis

Forest fires in Indonesia are believed to be responsible for more than 500,000 people suffering from respiratory illnesses. When the smoke from forest fires turned a thick, acrid yellow, casting an apocalyptic glow over Palangkaraya, Kartika Sari decided to grab her child and flee the Indonesian city at the epicentre of the haze crisis smothering Southeast Asia. The 32-year-old pharmacist and her three-year-old daughter have for weeks been inhaling toxic air in Palangkaraya, a city of 240,000 that has been engulfed in poisonous darkness by smoke from peat land set alight to clear land for palm oil plantations. "The smoke was no longer white, it was yellow,“ she told AFP from an evacuation centre in Banjarmasin, a six-hour drive from Palangkaraya.

Usually we just endured it, even though we had headaches and felt nauseous. But it has got so bad lately, that I can’t take it anymore.

Kartika Sari

Authorities say the fires from slash-and-burn farming in Borneo and neighbouring Sumatra have killed 10 people so far, some of whom died while fighting the blazes and others from the pollution. Respiratory illnesses in Palangkaraya have soared as the choking smog has worsened in recent weeks. At a health clinic in Palangkaraya, hundreds of people queue for hours for a chance to use one of the 10 oxygen tanks available to get a breath of fresh air. Three warships carrying medical teams, tents, cooking stoves and protective masks were on their way to the worst-affected regions in Kalimantan – Indonesia’s half of Borneo – and Sumatra to help build temporary shelters away from the haze-plagued cities.

Our warships are ready to evacuate residents, whether to these temporary shelters, or even to take them on board. We are prepared for that.

Indonesian military spokesman Tatang Sulaiman

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