Summary of major revisions made to emergency plan of action:
The impact of haze has reduced by the arrival of heavy rains, and the number of hotspots has diminished.
The duration of the delivery of basic medical services will be reassessed after one month of implementation, while the health education intervention will proceed for the three months period.
Due to the modification of the timeframe for medical services, the total number of beneficiaries has been reevaluated and it is now estimated that PMI will reach 83,700 people (instead of the 106,140 people as stated in the original plan of action) through its health services (medical services and health education).
The intervention now focuses on the province of South Kalimantan instead of the province of Riau.
The coverage has been extended from 9 districts to 32 districts in total, due to the increasing needs in remote areas.
A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
Forest and land fires in some of the islands of Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sumatra resulted in a very dense haze. The Centre for Health Crisis of Ministry of Health reported that the forest fire which caused this haze started in Riau Province and later spread into seven provinces, four in Kalimantan (West, East, South and Central Kalimantan) and three in Sumatra Island (Jambi, Riau and South Sumatera). Since September 2015, the haze has also affected neighboring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The intensification of this disaster is the consequence of El Niño in the region, with severe droughts and significant delay of the rainy season, therefore preventing the effect of the rain on forest fires.
Hot weather conditions and thick smoke combined with the initial lack of rain due to El Niño made the air pollutant index (API) level even worse while people, especially children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with preexisting respiratory problems became more vulnerable to upper respiratory tract infection (URI), eye irritation, pneumonia, asthma, skin irritation, which resulted into a few deaths. In addition, visibility went for weeks down to between 20 to 500 meters in most of the affected area, which caused delays or even cancellation of a number of DREF operation update Indonesia: Forest Fires flights in various provinces. This disaster also hampered daily activities and causes schools, universities and some offices to close down. The death toll recorded so far in Sumatera and Kalimantan is eleven people.