AFP/Jakarta
Indonesia’s disaster chief yesterday defended the country’s efforts to fight forest fires that have blanketed Southeast Asia in choking haze, and said he believed rains would arrive within a month to finally douse the blazes.
“Are we able to manage the fires? The answer is clearly a yes... we are not overwhelmed, we can manage it and there is progress,” National Disaster Management Agency chief Willem Rampangilei told reporters.
Malaysia, Singapore and large expanses of Indonesia have suffered for weeks from acrid smoke billowing from fires on plantations and peatlands that are being illegally cleared by burning.
Singapore has offered to help in fighting the fires but Rampangilei said it was not needed.
“Indonesia welcomes the offer but at this moment, everything is under control,” he said.
“We can see some achievements, some progress that we have successfully extinguished a number of fires,” he added.
More than 20,000 troops, police and other personnel have been sent to Sumatra and Kalimantan to fight the fires through waterbombing and chemically inducing rainfall. “Indonesia has tried all it could to douse the fires... and is still working very hard,” he said.
Rampangilei said while the firefighters have successfully subdued the flames, the choking smog remains a problem but he is hopeful the approaching rainy season will put an end to the crisis.
“We need heavy rainfall or sufficient waterbombing so, it takes time to resolve the haze,” he said.
“I hope the haze will be resolved in a month, that is either end October or early November,” he said.
Indonesia has faced pressure from its neighbours to address the problem since it first emerged nearly 20 years ago.
Singapore officials have reacted with outrage to Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla’s comments that the country’s neighbours should be grateful for good air quality most of the year, and that Jakarta need not apologise for the crisis.
A lengthy dry season in Indonesia this year has been worsened by the El Nino weather effect, making it harder to contain the fires in the absence of rains that usually arrive in November.
The agency had previously hoped to put out the fires, which are often blamed on smallholders or plantation companies, by mid-October.
Growing pollution from the smog has disrupted flights and forced school closures in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia, while thousands of people on the two Indonesian islands are reported to be battling respiratory diseases.
Indonesia has faced criticism from neighbours and green groups for not doing enough to prevent the fires, which cause millions of dollars worth of damage to health and the environment every year.
The environment ministry says it is taking legal action against four companies and is investigating about 200 more.
Singapore, where commuters have taken to wearing protective face masks, has urged Asia Pulp & Paper Co Ltd to check if subsidiaries and suppliers have links to the forest fires. The firm has said it will cooperate.
Authorities on Indonesia’s Sumatra island urged parents yesterday to bring babies and young children to a government
building as fears grew about the health effects of haze.
The mayor of Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, said he had prepared an air-conditioned hall that could accommodate 100 families
who have no means to protect their children exposed to pollution.
“The number of sick people is increasing and children are especially vulnerable to respiratory problems,” said Pekanbaru mayor Firdaus.
Local authorities said more than 40,000 people have suffered respiratory infections because of the smog, which has covered much of
Sumatra and Borneo islands for more than two months.
A helicopter crew deployed for water bombing walk past their grounded aircraft due to thick haze in Palembang on Sumatra island.
