Artificial rain program in Sumatra to begin soon
Artificial rain program in Sumatra to begin soon
The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau
Authorities from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore will soon
launch a joint cloud-seeding operation over hotspots in the north
of Indonesia to induce rain aimed at curbing troubling forest
fires in the region.
The 10-day operation was supposed to start on Monday, but
unfavorable weather conditions forced authorities to postpone the
plan.
"This artificial rain really depends on the weather
conditions. If the weather is not favorable, then we'll have to
postpone the cloud-seeding because of the huge cost involved,"
said Asep Karsidi, the head of the artificial rain unit at the
Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPP),
said quoted by Antara.
Cloud-seeding involves releasing a salt solution to try to
accelerate the formation of rain-producing clouds. It has been
tried in the past with mixed results, and many scientists have
questioned its efficacy.
"We carried out this kind of operation in 1997 and 2000 with
mixed results. This time we'll try it again," Asep said.
Fires set by farmers, plantation owners and miners taking
advantage of the dry season to clear land have raged out of
control in recent weeks, with much of the acrid smoke blowing
across the narrow Strait of Malacca to Malaysia.
Air pollution levels in large parts of Malaysia, including the
capital city Kuala Lumpur, reached hazardous levels for about 10
days before dissipating with changing winds and rain.
Maj. Aldrin Petrus Mongan of the Indonesian Air Force said
four C-130 Hercules aircraft participated in the operation.
Indonesia deployed two, while two more came from Malaysia and
Singapore. Aldrin said each aircraft carried between 23 and 25 crew.
Malaysia has also deployed 125 firefighters to help battle forest
fires in Sumatra.
The aircraft will fly over fire-ravaged forest areas in Riau,
North Sumatra, Jambi, and West Kalimantan.
Indonesian authorities said on Sunday that most of the haze-
causing surface brush fires were out -- but that they were still
battling underground fires in peat lands, AP reported.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian office of the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) urged the Indonesian government to prosecute companies that
were involved in setting the forest and land fires, some of which
it said were repeat offenders.
From July 18 to Aug. 16 in Riau, the conservation organization
recorded that 609 hotspots were located in the concessions of
companies, many of them the same companies charged by the Riau
provincial government for setting fires to clear land back in
2003.
From a total of 5,420 hotspots recorded by Modis Satellite
data for the same period, about half of them were located in
company concessions.
"Repeated incidents of forest and land fires, both in
companies' concessions and communities' plantations, indicate
public and corporate ignorance in respecting the zero-burning
policy set by the government of Indonesia in 2001," the WWF said.