Jakarta Globe/AFP 26 Jun 13;
The fires raging in Riau began to subside on Wednesday after heavy rains fell on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, aiding fire fighters and promising an end to the worst levels of haze recorded in more than a decade, an official said.
The number of fires detected in Riau fell from 264 to 54 on Wednesday as disaster response agencies continued to seed the clouds above Sumatra in an effort to create artificial rain, said Heru Widodo, a researcher with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT). The fires, which started on palm oil and pulp plantations, have burned in Riau for more than a week, blanketing neighboring Singapore and Malaysia in unhealthy levels of smog and igniting a diplomatic dustup over who was to blame.
Disaster response crews and the Indonesian Military (TNI) have been flying cloud-seeding missions over Sumatra every day since Saturday while thousands of fire fighters battled the blaze on the ground, Heru said. After several unsuccessful days of drizzle, heavy rains began to fall on the affected areas of Pekanbaru, Bengkalis and Rokan on Tuesday.
“We also expect heavy rain today and even heavier rains tomorrow,” Heru said. “If rain continus to fall every day we can expect the situation to return to normal in a week.”
The news came as a report said the crisis had claimed its first victim with the death of an asthmatic woman in southern Malaysia, which has been badly affected.
The smog from slash-and-burn agricultural fires on Sumatra island pushed haze levels to a record high in Singapore last week, shrouding residential buildings and downtown skyscrapers.
Favorable winds have since cleared the air over the city-state but southern Malaysia remains choked by smoke.
Indonesian officials said on Wednesday that the end was in sight.
“The rain has definitely helped our efforts,” national disaster agency official Agus Wibowo told AFP from Riau. “With the improving weather on our side, we are taking the opportunity to quickly fight the blazes on land.”
The fires have been hard to put out as they are burning under the surface of carbon-rich peat, meaning hoses need to be pushed into the ground to douse the flames.
Conditions had improved dramatically in the badly-hit city of Dumai, in Riau, on Wednesday after a storm broke at dawn, according to an AFP reporter.
“We were so hoping for rainwater because our water supply for bathing and washing clothes had run out,” said Lisa Rahmawati, a 25-year-old secretary.
In Malaysia, pollution has spiked to hazardous levels in some places in recent days, with the south seeing its worst air quality in 16 years last weekend.
The smog had eased Wednesday but continued to hang over some areas including the capital Kuala Lumpur.
The Sun newspaper said Li Cai Ling, a resident of the southern town of Muar — which saw intense air pollution at the weekend — died on Sunday with a medical report blaming the polluted air.
The situation has also forced newly-promoted English Premier League side Cardiff City to cancel a Malaysia visit that was set to begin this week.
The club said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday that it has abandoned the scheduled week-long trip to Malaysia — home of its billionaire owner Vincent Tan — “due to the current poor air quality in the region.”
Haze is an annual problem during drier summer months, when westerly monsoon winds blow smoke from forest fires and slash-and-burn land-clearing on the huge island of Sumatra, which lies across the Malacca Strait.
But this summer’s recurrence has been the worst in years.
Malaysia’s environment minister travelled to Indonesia on Wednesday morning to meet his counterpart in the hopes of resolving the problem, which earlier sparked a testy exchange between Indonesia and Singapore.
In 1997-1998, a severe bout of haze cost Southeast Asia an estimated $9 billion from disruptions to air travel and other business activities.
JG/AFP
