Water bomber grounded

SAMARINDA, East Kalimantan: The water bomber sent by the Australian government to help put out forest fires in the province is unable to take part in fire fighting efforts due to technical problems.

The head of the provincial office of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), Awang Farouq Ishak, said here Wednesday that the National Agency for Disaster Management (Bakornas PB) has confirmed that the airplane was unable to help put out fires in East Kalimantan due to technical problems.

But Bakornas PB has promised to dispatch another airplane to the province, Antara reported.

Ishak added that fire fighting efforts would focus on Kutai National Park.

The East Kalimantan Executive Coordination Unit for Disaster Management concluded early this week that the park was the area most threatened by the fires.

Fires are now ravaging more than 1,800 hectares of land and forests in East Kalimantan, 80 percent of which are in Kutai National Park.

Ishak said the three companies which had allegedly started the forest fires to clear land would be taken to court for violating the Law on Natural Resources and the Ecosystem and the Law on Environmental Management.

The three companies are PT Surya Hutani Jaya, which owns a timber estate in Sebulu Kutai, and PT London Sumatra and PT Matra Sawit, both operating in the rural areas of Mahakam, he said.