Australia offers aid to tackle fires

thejakartapost.com 10 Oct 15;

Australia has expressed its willingness to help extinguish forest fires in several parts of Indonesia.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that Australia had offered its L100 aircraft from the New South Wales fire department to be used to tackle the disaster, which has caused hazardous pollution in at least six provinces in the country and has caused more than 135,000 citizens to suffer from respiratory infections (ISPA).

“The fires keep burning due to the prolonged dry season in all parts of Indonesia,” said Julie in a press release on Saturday as quoted by tempo.co.

She added that Australians were currently facing the threat of bushfire as well.

“We want to aid our neighboring country to show our solidarity,” said Julie.

At least five countries have offered their assistance to tackle the fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. These are: Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Russia. (kes)(++++)


Haze efforts in full swing
Ina Parlina and Rizal Harahap, The Jakarta Post 10 Oct 15;

With the assistance of Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesia has begun a huge mitigation operation to extinguish forest and peatland fires that have sent thick haze over neighboring countries in the region.

With the help of the two countries, along with three others, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Friday that Indonesian disaster mitigation personnel were hard at work putting out the fires.

“I saw military and police personnel, as well as those from the BNPB [National Disaster Mitigation Agency] have indeed been working [hard],” Jokowi said while visiting an area where forest fires occurred in Kampar regency, Riau.

Jokowi also expressed his hope that the joint efforts could eliminate the haze sooner than expected.

Earlier, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and BNPB head Willem Rampangilei briefed the President, saying it would take at least two weeks to tackle the haze problem.

Both Luhut and Willem were in South Sumatra on Friday to receive aircraft from Singapore and Malaysia, aimed at helping to put out fires especially in South Sumatra where the majority of hot spots are located. The foreign assistance will mostly be concentrated on South Sumatra.

“Their target is around two weeks. Because we hope that by having larger-capacity airplanes for water bombing, we can handle the situation soon,” Jokowi said.

Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi made contact with three of her counterparts — from Russia, China and Australia — receiving confirmation that the countries were prepared to help Indonesia, especially on a plan to dispatch aircraft able to carry 10,000 liters of water to put out fires.

According to the BNPB, Singapore is set to deploy a Chinook helicopter equipped with a bucket able to carry 5,000 liters of water for aerial firefighting to Palembang on Friday afternoon, and a Hercules C-130 aircraft for cloud-seeding, as well as a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) firefighting assistance team and other equipment.

Malaysia, meanwhile, dispatched a Bombardier CL-415 for water-bombing operations, a Hercules C-130 aircraft, a small helicopter for surveys, a number of crew members and other equipment.

“The request for flight clearance has been sent by Malaysia to [Indonesia’s] Foreign Ministry,” BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Friday, adding that Indonesia had been working with five water-bombing helicopters, two Air Tractor aircraft and one Casa 212 aircraft.

The government previously declined repeated offers of assistance from Singapore on the basis that Indonesia had enough manpower to put out the fires, but eventually gave in following pressure from leaders in the region.

Earlier this week, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called on Indonesia to take action against people setting the fires that have caused heavy smoke across the region.

Schools in Malaysia and Singapore closed when the smoke was at its worst, with conditions also forcing the cancelation of a number of sports events.

Health authorities across the region have warned people to avoid outdoor exercise on bad pollution days.

Indonesia has routinely brushed off complaints, while at the same time vowing year after year to stop the fires.

In a number of cities in Sumatra, the thick smoke has taken its toll on the local population.

Kampar Regent Jefry Noer said the haze had caused an increasing number of acute respiratory infections in the regency.

“Around 20 people come to the clinic every day, which offers free treatment 24 hours,” said Jefry.

As a long-term solution to the haze problem, Jokowi has said that local administrations have started to build canal blocks for rewetting peat in several areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan, but said that “it would take time”.

Jokowi has also considered a plan to procure three aircraft that could carry more water — around four times more than the existing planes — and at the same time transport aid to disaster-affected areas.

“At least three units [of aircraft] with big capacity that are able to drop more than 12 tons [12,000 liters of water],” Jokowi said.


Multinational efforts tackle haze
Hans Nicholas Jong, The Jakarta Post 11 Oct 15;
Resources contributed by neighboring countries in the region have begun making their way to regions suffering the most from fires that have destroyed 1.7 million hectares of forest and land in the archipelago and have cost the country an estimated US$14 billion.

Singapore started deploying its personnel to Sumatra, where 45.9 percent of the fires located.

“Indonesian authorities provided clearance [to Singapore] last night. This morning a Chinook and two
C-130s took off ferrying men and equipment to fight the fires in Palembang,” Ng Eng Hen, Singapore’s defense minister, said Saturday.

The Chinook helicopter carried a 5,000-liter heli-bucket, which is a water dispenser slung underneath the aircraft.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the Chinook helicopter and C-130 Hercules airplanes from Singapore landed in Palembang, South Sumatra at 11 a.m. .

“They are currently being briefed by the disaster mitigation chief and the water bombing will start immediately after that,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Saturday.

Earlier on Friday, a CL415 Bombardier amphibious aircraft and crew arrived from Malaysia to join in the mitigation efforts, Sutopo said.

“This evening, one Dolphin helicopter with four crew members will also arrive [from Malaysia],” Sutopo said. “The Malaysian team will be stationed at Pangkal Pinang and will carry out water bombing in the Selapan and Air Sugihan regions, Ogan Komering Ilir regency, South Sumatra.”

The Indonesian government initially insisted it would not accept help from other countries to battle the forest fires.

However, the smoky haze from the land-clearing fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan has been exacerbated by the current dry season caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, with NASA warning it is on track to become the worst man-made disaster of its kind on record.

The hazardous haze has forced the closure of thousands of schools, grounded hundreds of flights and caused transboundary air pollution to affect Indonesia’s neighbors.

Faced with these grim predictions, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo finally sought help from Singapore, Russia, Malaysia and Japan to put out the fires on Thursday. The President plans for all fires to be extinguished within two weeks.

“Japan and Australia have contacted us in preparation to send assistance,” Sutopo said, adding that Singapore and Malaysia will operate for two weeks only.

Besides deploying assistance, Singapore is also taking legal action that could lead to massive fines against Indonesian companies blamed for the fires, including multinational Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).

APP was asked by Singapore’s National Environment Agency to supply information on its subsidiaries operating in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as measures taken by its suppliers in Indonesia to put out fires in their concessions.

APP is part of Indonesia’s Sinar Mas conglomerate, one of the world’s largest pulp and paper groups. It publicly upholds “sustainability” and forest conservation as core principles. Its products include stationery and toilet paper.

Last week, the biggest supermarket in Singapore, NTUC FairPrice, withdrew from its shelves all paper products sourced from APP, which has corporate offices in Singapore, as it was among those companies under investigation by Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) over the forest fires in Indonesia.

The NEA temporarily disallowed APP’s products from receiving a “green label” certification. The banned products include tissue and other toiletry products.

The Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI) said it was unfair for the Singaporean retailer to withdraw APP products from its shelves, believing it had stepped over law enforcement in Indonesia.

“We’re talking about a country, which means that a country has to implement the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Legal processes [taken by the Indonesian government] are still going on,” APHI legal and communication department coordinator Yuki Wardhana told reporters on Saturday. “The government [of Indonesia] should have responded firmly [against the action of the Singaporean retailer].”

In a press statement, APP Singapore promised to release all the information needed and it would invite Singaporean authorities to visit its sites and concessions so that the authorities could directly inspect the company’s operations in Indonesia.