Indonesia starts cloud seeding to prevent forest fires
Indonesia has started cloud seeding to induce rain as the archipelago moves to head off annual forest fires blamed for blanketing swathes of Southeast Asia in toxic haze.
Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia has started cloud seeding toinduce rain as the archipelago moves to head off annual forest fires blamed forblanketing swathes of Southeast Asia in toxic haze.
Over the past two weeks, cloud seeding, a technique that uses chemicals toinduce rain, has been used in hotspot Riau province on Sumatra. The countryplans to roll it out in other parts of the island and in Borneo.
The activity is to last throughout the dry season, which is expected to endaround September.
Last year's fires were the worst since 2015 due to dry weather, with some 1.6million hectares of land, mostly on Sumatra and Borneo islands, razed by theout-of-control blazes.
Authorities deployed tens of thousands of personnel andwater-bombing aircraft to tackle the fires, which are intentionally set toclear land for agriculture, including on palm oil and pulp plantations.
The fires sent a toxic haze across Southeast Asia that forcedschool closures and aggravated concerns./.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered government officials to find a permanent solution to prevent annual forest fires that cause serious consequences.
Thailand’s Air Force Chief ACM Manat Wongwat has deployed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to join in an operation to put out a forest fire in the central province of Nakhon Nayok.
The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation deployed helicopters to contain the fires in Khao Falami by using water from Huai Prue Reservoir in Nakhon Nayok
Smog from forest fires in Indonesia could complicate the country's efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, as its government has no contingency plan for additional respiratory diseases, local health experts warned on May 8.
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