Warga Berinisiatif Padamkan Kebakaran Hutan, kata Media Asing
Indonesians Take Fight Against Haze into Their Own Hands
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
WARGA yang putus asa di 'pusat gempa' kabut asap akhirnya berinisiatif mengatasi kebakaran hutan dan lahan, menggunakan apa saja untuk menghadapi bencana lingkungan yang melanda pemukiman mereka karena tidak sabar menanti pemerintah untuk mengatasinya secara serius.
Mengenakan kaos oblong yang kedodoroan dan sepatu karet, Yosua Oktavianus 13 tahun membantu ayahnya memadamkan api yang membakar di luar kampung halaman mereka di Kalimantan.
"Saya hanya ingin membantu ayah saya," katanya kepada AFP dekat Palangkaraya, ibu kota Kalimantan yang 240.000 penduduknya menderita infeksi saluran pernafasan atas (ISPA) akibat kabut asap semakin memburuk dalam beberapa pekan terakhir.
Penduduk setempat yang terpapar asap beracun membuat otoritas di Jakarta makin frustasi, upaya pemadaman api ternyata belum berhasil menghilangkan kabut asap.
Pemerintah telah melancarkan bom air untuk memadamkan kebakaran di Kalimantan dan Sumatera tapi sampai saat ini belum berhasil memadamkan ribuan titik api.
TNI AL mengirimkan kapal perang ke Kalimantan untuk melakukan evakuasi penduduk yang terpapar kabut asap, tapi banyak warga yang memilih memadamkan api atas inisiatif sendiri daripada dievakuasi, dan mereka menggunakan tongkat kayu, ember air, dan berbagai alat lainnya untuk memadamkan api, seperti dilansir MailOnline.
DESPERATE civilians at the epicentre of Indonesia's haze crisis are taking the fight into their own hands, using whatever meagre resources they have to confront the fires ravaging their communities as they tire of waiting for the government to take action.
Wearing an oversized T-shirt and ill-fitting rubber boots, 13-year-old Yosua Oktavianus assisted his father douse a fire burning outside their hometown in Borneo as acrid smoke belched from the scorched earth.
"I just want to help my dad," he told AFP near Palangkaraya, a city of 240,000 where respiratory illnesses have soared as the smog has worsened in recent weeks.
Communities worst exposed to the toxic smog are becoming increasingly frustrated at authorities in Jakarta, insisting not enough is being done to aid their plight.
The government has launched water-bombing raids dumping water over blazes on Borneo and neighbouring Sumatra but has failed so far to bring thousands of fires under control.
It has also sent warships to Kalimantan -- Indonesia's half of Borneo island -- in case large-scale evacuations are needed, but many on the ground are choosing to fight not flee, using wooden sticks, pails of water and anything else on hand to douse the flames.
