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Fires cover Sumatra in haze
Thick smoke is hanging over some areas of Sumatra, threatening Indonesia's neighbours with a replay of air pollution problems that have sporadically plagued the region in recent years.
The Environmental Impact Office in Riau province, just across the Strait of Malacca from Singapore and Malaysia, says smog caused by forest fires is obscuring the sky.
Visibility is so poor in some parts of the province that car and house lights are being switched on in daytime.
Satellite photos show 222 "hot spots" across Riau, mostly in the west of the province.
Small farmers, plantation and forestry companies, are being blamed for starting most of the fires.
Jakarta has banned land clearing by burning following fires that cast a pall over parts of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia for months in 1997-98.
21/02/2002 03:00:47 | ABC Radio Australia News
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