Singapore, Malaysia water-bomb hot spots in Sumatra

JAKARTA — Aircraft from Singapore and Malaysia today (Oct 11) began water-bombing missions to put out the raging fires in South Sumatra that have caused weeks of unhealthy haze in neighbouring nations.

In all, seven helicopters and four fixed-wing aircraft are involved in the mission, Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said in a statement today.

Singapore has sent a Republic of Singapore Air Force (SAF) Chinook helicopter with a 5,000-litre heli-bucket and 34 SAF personnel to help fight the ongoing forest fires, together with a six-man Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team from the Singapore Civil Defence Force, and a 5,000-litre heli-bucket. Two RSAF C-130 aircraft were also deployed to transport SAF and SCDF personnel, as well as their equipment, said Singapore’s Ministry of Defence.

Singapore’s defence minister Ng Eng Hen tonight posted photos from the operation on his Facebook page. He said conditions were “difficult” as the thick smoke affects visibility.

Meanwhile, Malaysia has deployed a 25-member team along with three assets, including a Bombardier aircraft that is capable of sucking up over 6,000 litres of water in 12 seconds, enough to put out fires the size of football field each round.

The operation is now concentrated in the worst-affected areas of Ogan Komering Ilir and Musi Banyuasin in South Sumatra Province.

Due to the severity of the fires, Indonesia has also requested for a large plane from Australia that will be able to drop 15,000 litres of water in a few seconds. Australia will deploy the Hercules L-100 aircraft to Indonesia next week for just five days as it will then need to head home to New South Wales where there are also forest fires, said BNPB.

“The National Disaster Management Agency is looking into renting more helicopters and new aircraft for the operation. Discussions with the Russian government are still ongoing. Mainly, we hope they will send a Beriev BE-200 aircraft that has a huge capacity and the BE-200 flight can scoop water up, like this bombardier jet, and can carry out water bombing,” said BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

The BE-200 aircraft can scoop up as much as 12,000 litres of water simply by skimming the surface of the sea or lake.

After repeatedly declining offers of help for weeks, Indonesia last week accepted assistance from its neighbours, including Australia, to put out the fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan that drove air quality in Singapore to levels described as “hazardous” and caused haze as far away as Thailand and Vietnam.

Indonesia hopes to extinguish all fires burning in different parts of the country within two weeks, with the help of neighbouring countries.

Earlier this week, Singapore sent a formal request to Indonesia for names of companies held responsible for the forest fires.

Malaysia meanwhile 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 a statement yesterday.

Today, Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak said Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had expressed regret over the haze in a meeting between the two leaders in Bogor, West Java.

“Indirectly. I think he understood (the problem), and he felt embarrassed and under pressure,” The New Straits Times quoted Mr Najib as saying. “It’s a complicated problem-it’s not (Mr Widodo’s) intention to allow the burning (to continue),”

Mr Najib, who was on a two-day visit to hold bilateral talks with Mr Widodo, added: “I told Jokowi that the haze threatens the Malaysian people’s interests, especially in areas such as health, transport and education, with schools having to be closed and so on. It has also affected economic and social activities.”

Malaysia reopened three of its airports earlier last week after they were forced to close from the deteriorating haze, Malaysia Airports Bhd. said in a tweet.

Seven provinces in southern Thailand were affected by the haze, including the resort island of Phuket, according to the nation’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. AGENCIES