Pollution leads to school closures in two Borneo cities

Sick of the haze: Students protesting outside the Riau governor’s office in Pekanbaru, demanding that the government do more to fight the forest fires. — AFP

PALANGKA RAYA: Schools in two cities in the Indonesian part of Borneo island will be closed for a week after smoke from forest fires caused air quality to hit “dangerous” levels, a local government official has announced.

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.