Central Java towns call for water bombers to fight fires
JAKARTA (JP): Police in the Central Java towns of Boyolali and Semarang urgently called yesterday for foreign water bombers to help extinguish forest fires raging at several locations, including on Mt. Merbabu and Mt. Potro.
Traditional methods of firefighting have failed to contain the fires as they were located on steeply sloping riverbanks.
"It would be very helpful if the American volunteers (equipped with water bombers) came here to contain the fires," said Lt. Col. Beno Kilapong, chief of the Salatiga police precinct, as quoted by Antara.
He said fires might also spread to other mountains like Mt. Gajah and Mt. Telomoyo.
"We have tried to put out the fires with traditional methods but have encountered difficulties due to their locations being too difficult to reach," Beno said.
An international contingent, including from the United States, has been helping extinguish fires which have razed hundreds of thousands of hectares on plantations and in forests mainly in Sumatra and Kalimantan since July.
A dozen Hercules planes and helicopters from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Japan have been deployed to help contain fires. Water bombers from the United States also began an eight- day mission in East Java on Oct. 22.
Singapore is still allowing Jambi to continue using pollution- recording equipment, lent to the province a few months ago, to measure danger levels of the haze because smoke still enveloped some regencies in the province, local officials said Thursday.
"We still cannot contain fires on peat land in Tanjung Jabung," Jambi deputy governor Uteng Suryadiatna said.
The number of tourists visiting the province has dropped by 40 percent because Sultan Thaha Airport has often been closed due to poor visibility.
Many farmers in Semarang, Grobogan, Kudus and Boyolali in Central Java have also complained that they could get almost nothing from their paddy fields due to the prolonged drought.
"We have to eat tiwul (foodstuff made of cassava) because we cannot afford to buy rice," Antara quoted a farmer in one of the regencies as saying.
President Soeharto said early this month that farmers consumed tiwul because they believed it would give them extra strength and not because they did not have enough rice.
The fires have produced a haze which has blanketed not only the two islands but also neighboring countries including Singapore, Malaysia and even Thailand.
About 20 million people have suffered from respiratory problems caused by the haze. The government has said the fires were started by plantation and timber companies which burned forests to clear land.
United Nations climate experts said in Geneva last week that rains in Indonesia would not likely come before January next year. (prb)