Jakarta, Oct 12 (Antara)- The problem posed by land fires in Indonesia, and the resultant haze which also affected neighboring countries, is expected to end soon as teams from foreign countries commenced fire extinguishing operations on Monday.
The fires and haze have affected health and disturbed daily life in Indonesia and neighboring countries.
The teams from Singapore and Malaysia joined the local forest and land fire prevention task force to commence fire extinguishing operations on Monday, focusing on the hotspots in Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) district in South Sumatra.
"Today, teams from Singapore and Malaysia, along with South Sumatra's Forest and Land Fires Prevention Task Force, have begun aerial and land operations to extinguish the fires in Ogan Komering Ilir and Musi Banyuasin District," South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin stated on Monday.
The operations were commenced in OKI and Musi Banyuasin, the two districts hit by forest and land fires so badly that they made South Sumatra the biggest haze exporter province in Indonesia during the current drought.
Hence, Ogan Komering Ilir District was accorded priority in fire extinguishing operations because OKI has been the biggest source of haze, compared to other districts in Indonesia, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan, told the press on Monday.
"Visibility in OKI is only about 100 meters. The district is the worst hit by haze, based on data we have received," Pandjaitan told the press, adding that having observed the burnt areas in OKI, he reached the same conclusion.
"After it was extinguished, the fire broke out again due to the winds that blew. It happened because the land was covered by peat, which is very inflammable," the minister said.
Governor Noerdin also acknowledged that the forest and land fires' condition in the two districts of OKI and Musi Banyuasin was the worst. That is the reason why South Sumatra was putting in maximal efforts to put out forest and land fires in the two districts.
Fire fighters will be using foreign aircraft, according to Alex Noerdin. These aircraft are here to assist in firefighting.
The governor noted that the efforts to extinguish the land fires using aircraft from neighboring countries would focus on the districts of Musi Banyuasin and Ogan Koering Ilir, as most of the hotspots in South Sumatra were found in these two districts.
Noerdin remarked that as part of the operations, the team will deploy a helicopter from Singapore and an amphibious Bombardier CL415MMP aircraft from Malaysia.
According to Noerdin, his team will take maximum efforts to get rid of the smog, which has been hindering public activities and affecting the residents' health since the end of August 2015.
With human resources and equipment, along with assistance from other countries, he was optimistic that the land fires can be overcome. The haze will also disappear soon, he said, adding that the operations would be effective and successful in ending the forest fires which had been spreading as a result of the drought in South Sumatra.
He revealed that the operations will continue until the land fires in South Sumatra and Kalimantan were extinguished. He added that the South Sumatra government was thankful for the foreign assistance and expressed the hope that the hotspots and haze would soon disappear.
The governor stated that the protracted fires in South Sumatra, regardless of the continuing attempts to extinguish them, resulted in a situation that made neighboring countries empathize and provide aircraft assistance.
The efforts undertaken so far have failed to put out these fires that had burnt the peatland areas and occurred in far off locations.
Noerdin expressed the hope that aircraft assistance will help resolve the problem of hotspots and haze.
After all, according to Chief Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, efforts to put out the fires by water bombing these areas were postponed due to problems posed by low visibility of only 100 meters.
"It is also very difficult to induce artificial rain there because the air is foggy and the clouds proved to be inadequate. We are still waiting for the arrival of a Hercules aircraft which would help support the efforts to produce man-made rain," he said.
The Chief Security Minister also underscored that all related parties have been coordinating with each other well.
Governor Noerdin said to overcome the smog disaster, the local government has, since September 2015, deployed 4,997 personnel from the Provincial Agency for Disaster Management (BPBD), Manggala Agni, and Indonesian Armed/Police Forces, among others.
They were part of a task force which was assigned the role of reducing land and forest fires in South Sumatra.
"In the last two months, the task force had extinguished 1,259 hotspots and conducted 6,826 water bombing operations," he stated.
In addition, his officials will deploy additional equipment to put out land and forest fires.
This is part of the anticipatory measures undertaken to face the next dry season, so that the problem of haze can be minimized, or even overcome.
"The next steps will include adding more than 40 water pumps and normalizing the flow of water in peatland or areas prone to land and forest fires," the governor explained.
In the meantime, Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo stated last Thursday that the government of Indonesia would welcome foreign offers to help battle forest fires in the country that have caused a major inconvenience as these led to haze or thick smoke, affecting even neighboring countries.
"The government would welcome any offer from neighboring countries which are keen to help," the minister affirmed last Thursday.
He expressed disappointment with the criticism being voiced by neighboring countries who are blaming Indonesia for the smoke being blown by strong winds from forest fires in Sumatra or Kalimantan.
"Please do not entirely place the blame on this sovereign country. If they honestly want to help, let them please do so," he emphasized. ***4***
(T.A014/INE)
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(T.SYS/A/A. Abdussalam/A. Abdussalam) 12-10-2015 20:58:1 |
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