Singapore and Malaysia have sent aircraft to Palembang in South Sumatra to help Indonesia fight forest fires in parts of the country, which have caused haze and deteriorated air quality in neighboring nations.
Singapore has dispatched a Chinook helicopter and a Hercules plane, while Malaysia flew in a CL415 Bombardier with a flight crew of 12 people to extinguish the fires over the next two weeks, Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a text message on Saturday.
The Malaysian team will be based in Pangkal Pinang in the neighboring Bangka-Belitung islands, he said.
Photo: AFP
Seven helicopters and three aircraft from Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are “conducting water bombing” in South Sumatra, while a CASA aircraft will be used for “cloud seeding,” an attempt to change cloud precipitation, Nugroho said by text messages yesterday.
There were 726 hotspots in Sumatra and 182 in Kalimantan on Indonesia’s Borneo island yesterday, Nugroho said separately in a Twitter post.
A total of 1.7 million hectares of Indonesian land and forests have been affected so far, he said.
Indonesia has accepted help from its neighbors, including Australia, to put out the fires that drove air quality in Singapore to levels described as “hazardous” and caused haze as far away as Thailand.
Indonesia plans to extinguish all fires burning in different parts of the country within two weeks, with help of neighboring countries, Channel News Asia cited Indonesian President Joko Widodo as saying.
Singapore has also sent 34 personnel from its armed forces and a six-man rescue team from its civil defense forces after Indonesia agreed to take up the city-state’s offer to help put out the fires, according a statement released by the Singapore government on Saturday.
Singapore last week sent a formal request to Indonesia for names of companies held responsible for the forest fires.
A concentration of fires in parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra and Kalimantan drove Singapore’s air quality to unhealthy levels since early last month.
Singapore’s hourly pollution index rose to more than 300 on Sept. 25, indicating a hazardous level, according to the National Environment Agency’s Web site.
Malaysia expressed deep concern about the recurring haze situation in the region and sought Indonesia’s assurances that it would address the land and forest fires effectively, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday.
Widodo was due to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in Bogor, West Java, yesterday.
“We welcomed Indonesia’s ongoing efforts to address land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, including bringing the perpetrators to justice,” the statement said.
Malaysia reopened three of its airports last week after they were forced to close from the deteriorating haze, Malaysia Airports Bhd said in a Twitter post.
Seven provinces in southern Thailand were affected by the haze, including Phuket, according to the nation’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
Australia on Saturday said that it was sending a Hercules air tanker and a rural firefighting team. The Australian team was due to arrive in South Sumatra yesterday, while a Hercules plane that can carry 15 tonnes of water will fly in tomorrow or Wednesday, Nugroho said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese