Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, on Oct. 16 with a an all time high PSI of 2900. Photo: Bjorneo Bear
Most of us have seen plenty of grim images of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur under the current cloud of haze, caused by smoke from Sumatra and Kalimantan’s raging forest fires drifting across the sea, which in turn create clouds of grey toxic smog, widespread health problems, school closings, flight cancellations and political turmoil.
But we have few images from the heart of the haze crisis, that shows the true severity of the problem at its source.
Well now we have a single photo that sums up, better than any other we’ve seen, how truly bad things have gotten in Kalimantan.
Taken on October 16 by Bjorneo Bear, of Borneo Productions International, it is kind of hard to believe it’s real But that’s because the overwhelming majority of us are lucky enough to have never experienced anything remotely like the kind of insanely intense pollution seen in the image.
But it is all too real. Especially for the man in the photo, who is going fishing.
As Bjorneo explains in his description of the photo:
“Today was a yellow day in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Air pollution index reached an all time high of 2900psi. I don’t know what that means anymore.
The man in the photo is Slamet. Normally he works in construction, but because of the haze there is currently no work for him in Palangka Raya. Slamat has no money, like literally no money. So he casts his net into a dirty canal somewhere in Palangka Raya. The water is full of garbage and toxic waste, yet he says “better a dirty fish than no fish at all. Always be grateful and give thanks to God.”
In case you aren’t familiar with the pollutant standards index (PSI), PSI levels over 200 are already considered dangerous for one’s health. So, obviously, breathing in air with a PSI level of over 2,900 would be incredibly dangerous, especially for a prolonged period of time.
We applaud Bjorneo risking his own health to document the environmental disaster facing Slamet and his community so he can share it with the world.
We also think it is extremely important that people all around Indonesia, but especially Indonesia (and especially in Jakarta) understand just how bad the haze is affecting people on the ground throughout the region so that something can be done about it.
For that reason, we went to Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau in Sumatra, to document the impact of the haze on another city hit extremely hard by the nearby forest fires in our video series, “Into the Haze,” which you can watch below.
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