PALANGKARAYA - Two years ago, Kalimantan Island experienced one of the worst fires and haze disasters in history, with more than 680,000 hectares of tropical landscape burning (equal to 9-time area of Singapore). Thick yellowish smoke sullied the air for almost six months, causing thousands of people to suffer from heart and lung problems.
Nobody knows when Kalimantan Island will be free from fire and haze, as we have been facing this problem for 24 years. What is important now is how we can protect the life of the children, mothers, and elders. For this reason, in 2019, Ranu Welum Foundation built four haze shelters in PKBM Candra Kirana, SDN 8 Palangka, SHM Mahanaim, and KSE UPR, in collaboration with Big Red Button and Kopernik.
Oli prepared the airazor filter and Xiomi Air Purifier to test the performance of the machines filtering the smog in the room.
In 10 minute the machine can decrees the concentration of PM 2.5 from 975 ug/m3 to 127 ug/m3 in haze shelter in SHM Mahanaim.
"We are ready to face another fire and haze season in Kalimantan," said Oli, the headmaster of PKBM Candra Kirana, to our team during our monitoring visit to the haze shelter that we built in their school. "We recently installed air conditioning in our haze shelter, so when the haze hits our city again, the room can be immediately used for shelter. We also frequently use the shelter for learning media to teach the students about the dangers of particulate 2.5".
All the machines and filters that we installed in the four smoke haze shelters are still functioning well even though they are rarely used because there is no thick smoke at the moment. Even though the fire has not hit our island yet, but we are already prepared for the worst scenario.
Thank you for Big Red Button that has been supporting us in the battle fighting 24-years forest and land fire in Kalimantan.