Antara 7 Aug 19;
Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government's efforts to combat land and forest fires have received appreciation at the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states in Brunei Darussalam to discuss transboundary haze pollution. "We concluded the meeting only last night. During the two-day session no participant (complained about) transboundary (haze pollution) from Indonesia. We explained our concrete efforts in the field but we must admit that it is very difficult to put out peatland fires," Director of Land and Forest Fire Control of the Environment and Forestry Ministry Raffles B Panjaitan said in a written statement released Wednesday.
"I met with Singapore Minister of Environment and Water Sources Masagos Zulkifli. He thanked the Indonesian government for its efforts to handle land and forest fires and sent best regards to Minister Siti Nurbaya," he said.
The integrated land and forest fire control task force comprising personnel from the military, police, national and regional disaster mitigation agencies, village heads, firefighters, fire brigades of national parks, natural resource and ecosystem conservation agency have continued their efforts to control fires arising from vulnerable areas, Raffles said.
As of August 6, 2019, 38 helicopters and planes have been involved in patrolling and extinguishing land and forest fires in the country.
Of the total, 19 have been deployed in Riau Province, four in South Sumatra Province, six in West Kalimantan Province, five in Central Kalimantan Province, two in South Kalimantan Province and one in Jambi Province.
Until August 5, 2019, helicopters and planes have conducted a total of 24,660 water bombing operations with 90,457,400 liters of water to put out fires in the areas that the team could not reach by land.
In addition, weather modification through cloud seeding has also been conducted, focusing on vulnerable areas. By August 5, 2019, 170 sorties of cloud seeding with 125,616 kilograms of salt have been conducted in the districts of Bengkalis, Siak, Indragiri Hilir, Kampar, Pelalawan, Ogan Ilir, and Meranti Islands and the municipality of Dumai in Riau Province.
The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) identified at least 18,895 hotspots in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea in the past two weeks and warned people of the possibility of forest and land fires.
"The increasing number of hotspots was due to the current atmospheric conditions and relatively hot and dry weather that tends to scorch plants more easily," BMKG's Deputy of Meteorology Mulyono R. Prabowo stated here Wednesday.
Information on the number of hotspots was obtained from the Terra Aqua Satellite (LAPAN) and Himawari Satellite (Japan JMA) imagery that was then analyzed by BMKG.
Based on the monitoring conducted by BMKG, the number of hotspots in some Southeast Asian regions has increased, from 1,395 as monitored on July 25, 2019, to 2,441 hotspots on July 28, 2019.
Furthermore, the hotspots began to reduce to 1,782 on July 29, 2019, and then to 703 hotspots on August 1, 2019.
The number of hotspots increased again to 3,191 on August 4, 2019, and was concentrated in the Indonesian provinces of Riau, Central Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The hotspots were also detected in some other ASEAN countries of Malaysia (in Sarawak), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
Reporter: Virna P Setyorini/Suharto
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia agree to tackle haze
The Star 8 Aug 19;
PETALING JAYA: Five Asean countries - Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia - have agreed to tackle the scourge of haze, which has been an annual affair plaguing the region for decades.
The consensus was achieved by the five countries during the 21st Meeting of the Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) on Transboundary Haze Pollution held in Brunei on Tuesday (Aug 6).
The five countries pledged to step up preventative measures to minimise any incidence of haze across the region during the dry spell between August till October this year.
They also agreed to step up cooperation in addressing haze pollution across the region effectively, through the implementation of the Hazing Across Borders Action Plan.
“It also agreed to step up regional coordination through the implementation of international cooperation projects involving projects to address haze, sustainable forest management and conservation practices in peat areas, ” said the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry in a press statement issued on Thursday (Aug 8).
The ministry also said that among the ongoing and future cooperation by the five countries were its preparedness to provide technical support in terms of tools and manpower, if there are large-scale forest fires that causes haze.
The five countries, who were members of the MSC, also reiterated its commitment to achieve the target of a “Haze-Free Asean by 2020”, and it will continue capacity development programmes and training among such countries in addressing haze.
At a domestic level, the ministry said Malaysia have implemented the National Open Fire Action Plan, which is a joint-effort involving various ministries, departments and agencies at a Federal and state level, as decided during the meeting of Environment Ministers and State Executive Council Members Responsible For Environment (Mexcoe) in Putrajaya last Aug 2.
“Besides that, various agencies and departments will also enforce the law on offenders who caused open fires and it will strengthen preparation to put out fires to ensure that cross-border haze incident can be prevented, ” it added.
Malaysia was represented by the Deputy Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister, Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis, during the meeting.
