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Officials rely on cloud seeding to combat forest fires
Put out the flame: Land and forest fire prevention patrol personnel attempt to extinguish fires engulfing peatland in Ganepo village, East Kotawaringin regency, Central Kalimantan, on Wednesday
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ut out the flame: Land and forest fire prevention patrol personnel attempt to extinguish fires engulfing peatland in Ganepo village, East Kotawaringin regency, Central Kalimantan, on Wednesday. Land and forest fires in several areas across the province continue even though rain has begun to fall.(Antara/Bayu Pratama S.)
Air quality in a number of areas affected by forest and land fires has improved as a result of a declining number of hot spots in Sumatra and Kalimantan, according a National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) official.
BNPB acting spokesperson Agus Wibowo said there had been a reduction in hot spots in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan. However, the number of hot spots in South Kalimantan is still growing and remains the worst among all the provinces.
“National Institute of Aeronautics and Space [Lapan] satellite surveillance shows that air quality has improved because there has been a decrease in hot spots in Sumatra and Kalimantan,” Agus said at the BNPB building in East Jakarta on Monday.
Despite the ongoing forest fires, recent air quality measurements conducted by the BNPB in all of the affected provinces showed a reading of PM 2.5, which falls under the category of “good”.
Based on BNPB data on Monday, the total number of hot spots in the country is 673. South Kalimantan has the highest number with 141, followed by Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra with 63 each and Jambi with 15. Riau and West Kalimantan currently have none.
BNPB head Doni Monardo previously underlined the effectiveness of artificial weather modification, or cloud seeding, compared to the conventional water bombing method.
“Water bombing and flooding canals to submerge peatland in water or constantly spraying trees or grassland with water have proven to be ineffective as the vegetation dries out much faster,” he said.
Artificial weather modification involves spraying thousands of kilograms of salt and oxocalcium onto clouds. Salt is used to lower the freezing points of ice and, thus, to stimulate rainfall. Meanwhile, oxocalcium stimulates clouds to produce rain faster.
“The method is our most effective in combating and preventing forest fires. As of today, 9,600 kg of salt and oxocalcium have been sprayed onto clouds above Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan provinces using four airplanes. Alhamdulillah [thank God]. The weather modification operation conducted on Monday had a positive result as it started to rain in areas in Riau, Jambi, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan,” said Agus.
The BNPB also addressed the problem of acute respiratory infection affecting thousands of people as a result of haze from forest fires.
According to Health Ministry data, as of this month, nearly 920,000 people with acute respiratory infection have been recorded in the six provinces with raging forest fires.
South Sumatra has the most acute respiratory infection patients with 291,800, while Central Kalimantan has the least with 40,370 patients.
“We see this as a huge problem. However, the unpredictability of wind direction makes it very difficult for us to prevent everyone in the six provinces from coming into contact with the smog. For now, local community health centers and administration buildings provide masks and temporary shelter to residents wanting to avoid the haze,” Agus told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Doni also claimed that the majority of forest fires had been lit by people connected to concession holders. “Around 99 percent of forest fire cases were lit by people. Most of them were paid by their bosses,” he said.
Environment and Forestry Ministry director for forest and land fire control Raffles Panjaitan said there was a high possibility that arsonists received instructions from the landowners.
“The concession holders instruct subordinates to burn their own land so they can convert into oil palm plantations or erect housing,” said Raffles last week.
The forestry ministry has sealed 64 forest concession areas on the suspicion that the landowners deliberately set fire to their land or had been negligent in preventing or putting out forest fires in their land.
Out of the 64, 20 are foreign-controlled companies from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong with operations in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan. Some of the 20 companies have been identified only as Malaysian PT IGP (West Kalimantan), PT MJSP (Central Kalimantan) and PT SIA (West Kalimantan), and Singaporean PT SP (West Kalimantan), PT GH (Riau) and PT WAJ (South Sumatra), and Hong Kong controlled PT GMU (West Kalimantan). (bry)
