KL ready to help RI battle forest fires
KL ready to help RI battle forest fires
Agencies, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian firefighters have been put on alert to help combat
hundreds of fires raging out of control in Indonesia and sending
plumes of smoke billowing across nearby countries, news reports
said on Sunday.
The Malaysian government would dispatch firefighters to
Indonesian territories worst hit by blazes, mainly parts of
Kalimantan province on Borneo island, if Indonesian authorities
make a request, said Malaysian Deputy Housing and Local
Government Minister Peter Chin.
"We are waiting for a directive ... so that our firemen can
help them fight the fires there," Chin was quoted as saying by
the Sunday Star newspaper.
The out-of-control fires -- set by farmers, plantation owners
and loggers to clear land -- have raged on Indonesia's portion of
Borneo and Sumatra islands since the beginning of August.
Cash-strapped local authorities say they are forced to depend
on poorly trained volunteers, many of whom fight the blazes with
only pick axes and leaky hoses.
Smoky haze from the fires has forced flight delays in
Indonesia, school closures and sent hundreds of residents to
hospitals because of respiratory ailments.
The haze has also swathed several parts of neighboring
Malaysia and Singapore. Visibility in Kuching, the capital of
Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo island, plunged to 0.8
kilometer (0.5 mile) on Sunday, the meteorological department
reported.
Singapore's National Environmental Agency, which uses
satellites to monitor fires in the region, said "hot spots",
already numbering in the hundreds, have increased significantly
in recent days.
Malaysia's Bernama news agency said a team of Malaysian
experts would visit Kalimantan next week following a meeting
between the country's Science, Technology and Environment
Minister Law Hieng Ding and his Indonesian counterpart Nabiel
Makarim at this month's Earth Summit in South Africa.
"I will meet my counterpart, Nabiel Makarim, in Pontianak on
September 27 to discuss related issues ahead of a Malaysian team
which will be brought to the site concerned," Law told Bernama.
Pontianak is the capital of West Kalimantan province, where
hundreds of people had been treated as a result of the smoke that
polluted the air and water.
Periods of smoke or haze, which blanketed parts of Indonesia,
Malaysia and Singapore in 1997 and 1998, cost the regional
economies $9 billion, mainly in agriculture, transportation and
tourism.
Conservationists have long criticized Jakarta for failing to
protect its natural resources. Indonesia admits its laws are too
weak to deal with the problem and is promising reform.