The question is, will that be enough?
Some 14 helicopters were reportedly seen on Monday dumping water on blazes on western Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo island and “cloud-seeding”, which involves using chemicals to induce rain, the country’s disaster agency said.
Air quality has deteriorated in the city-state of Singapore and Malaysia in recent days, as wind carries the smog from Indonesia. Smog continue to shroud Singapore today — with PSI at an unhealthy 129 at 12 noon — with air quality at unhealthy levels.
Two outdoor races scheduled for Sunday were cancelled, while organisers of the Formula One due to be held in the city-state reportedly said they are closely monitoring the haze in case it affects the event.
As of late Sunday, more than 1,100 “hotspots” — areas with high temperatures that are either already on fire or likely to soon go up in flames — were detected by satellites on Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
“Even when blazes are successfully extinguished, people then start new fires,” Nugroho said, adding that the police were investigating 26 companies and scores of people over the illegal blazes.
Pressure to stop the annual outbreaks of smog has increased since 2013 when Southeast Asia suffered its worst air pollution crisis for more than a decade, but joint attempts by countries in the region to find a solution have moved slowly. Based on an AFP report.
Photo: Thomas Caceres
