'Forest fires to be under control soon'
JAKARTA (JP): As thousands of hectares of forest continue to burn, Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo claims that firefighters deployed to put out the blaze should soon have the upper hand.
The ministry deployed 8,437 firefighters divided into 560 teams in 17 provinces to handle the fires in forest concession areas and industrial timber estates, he said.
Some 4,530 personnel were sent to South Sumatra, 678 to East Kalimantan and 311 to Riau, he added.
With their expertise backed by various equipment, the firefighters could keep the fires under control, Djamaludin confidently said.
The ministry has reportedly set aside Rp 3.1 billion (US$1.07 million) to handle the forest fires, with Rp 2.6 billion coming from the reforestation fund and the rest from the central government budget.
The Ministry is also allocating Rp 40 million to the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology which is attempting cloud seeding to help form rain.
At least 300,000 hectares of land and forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan have been destroyed by fire in the last three months, endangering the lives of up to 40 million people here and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore with the resulting haze.
In Indonesia, more than 32,000 people are reportedly suffering from respiratory problems caused by the haze.
On Tuesday, Suyono Yahya, secretary to the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, said two people had died due to the haze, but he retracted his statement yesterday saying that their cause of death was due to various health complications.
Despite's Djamaludin's confidence that the fires would soon be under control, Mahdi Kartasasmita, the deputy chairman on Remote Sensing Affairs at the National Space and Aviation Agency (Lapan), told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the latest satellite images showed that the spread of forest fires had not lessened in the past month.
He said that a Sept. 22 image taken by a NOAA satellite indicated that the fires in Kalimantan were moving in a southeasterly direction while fires in Sumatra were moving in a southerly direction.
He said the fires were surrounded by mostly dry areas.
Efforts to combat the forest fires have now turned into an international effort.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Azwar Anas said yesterday that Japan and France have offered to help Indonesia in combating the fires.
"I've met with Japanese Embassy officials, and they have promised to send their experts," Azwar said after meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.
Japanese diplomats said yesterday that Tokyo plans to donate 300 water cannons worth Rp 430 million to be used to extinguish the fires.
"This is an expression of our solidarity," a diplomat said.
Azwar said Indonesia welcomed the international assistance, but maintained that the country would not appeal for help.
"Japanese diplomats asked me why we do not ask for international help. I said we can solve the problem by ourselves," he added.
France has also informed the government on its willingness to help, and Azwar will meet with French officials in the near future.
About 1,000 Malaysian firefighters have arrived in Dumai, Riau, yesterday to help combat the fires which have produced haze choking their country.
Two-hundred and forty of them will stay in Riau, another 360 will go to Jambi while the remaining 400 will fight the fires in South Sumatra.
Meanwhile in Kuala Lumpur, AFP reported that the Air Pollution Index (API) reached more than 700, way above the 500 level considered dangerous.
The United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur is allowing its Malaysian-based staff and their family members to leave the country due to the haze.
The decision to leave Malaysia has been authorized by the U.S. State Department, an embassy official told Bernama news agency.
The official said essential staff members would be rotated in and out of Malaysia in order to minimize any possible health effects from continuous exposure to the unhealthy pollution levels and "to get some fresh air".
A Japanese Embassy official told AFP that some of their dependents have already left Malaysia to return to Japan.
He also said that other Japanese citizens in Malaysia would be provided with special masks flown in from Japan.
There are an estimated 15,000 Japanese living in Malaysia.
The haze has also begun to engulf the popular southern Thai resort of Phuket, reports from Bangkok said yesterday.
Hoteliers said the pollution had just reached the area and was not yet a problem, especially since it was low season with daily monsoon rains and occupancy rates below 50 percent. (prb/aan/08)
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