Indonesia to assess foreign firefighting aid offers, hopes to extinguish blazes within a month
The Indonesian environment minister also outlined plans to tighten land-clearing laws to prevent future forest fires, including scrapping an exemption allowing small-scale burning under traditional practices.
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JAKARTA: Indonesia said it will assess offers from other countries to help combat forest and land fires based on the type of aid offered, even as it aims to extinguish the blazes in less than a month.
Speaking at a forum in Jakarta on Tuesday (Oct 13), Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat stressed that Indonesia would need to ascertain the effectiveness of any help offered in accelerating firefighting operations on the ground.
The minister did not name any countries, but Malaysia had previously offered firefighting aircraft, three helicopters and 52 people to assist with firefighting operations.
Singapore also said it is prepared to help Indonesia in fighting forest fires wherever necessary amid the ongoing haze.
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Widespread land and forest fires have raged in Indonesia for weeks, causing transboundary haze, a spike in respiratory conditions in the three countries and the shutting of schools in Malaysia, most recently in the southern state of Johor.
Jumhur on Tuesday said the small deployments of personnel may have limited impact, given that Indonesia has already deployed tens of thousands of responders. The same applies to assistance involving water-bombing aircraft, which must be evaluated based on operational needs and effectiveness, state news agency Antara reported him as saying.
Authorities has previously said ground operations have been more dominant because some areas are difficult to access by helicopter due to the extremely thick smoke.
FIRES TO BE EXTINGUISHED WITHIN A MONTH: MINISTER
Jumhur said Indonesia aims to extinguish all forest and land fires in less than a month, as joint teams continue firefighting operations across several affected areas.
Firefighting efforts have been focused on the Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra provinces, said the authorities.
"Based on discussions with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), it should take a few weeks (to extinguish the fires). But since intensity is already starting to decline, hopefully it will take less (than a month)," Jumhur said.
The minister noted that limited water supplies and operational challenges continue to hamper firefighting efforts.
In a bid to tackle recurring blazes, Jumhur also said the government plans to eliminate the exemption permitting burning on plots of up to two hectares per household under traditional practices.
It is also considering prohibiting the replanting of plantation crops, including oil palm, on concession land that has been burned before commercial planting.
Jumhur warned that the government would impose strict sanctions if intentional burning were found to have occurred in concession areas.
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