Yahoo – AFP,
19 Oct 2015
International
efforts to douse raging Indonesia fires will fail and Southeast Asia could face
several more weeks of choking smoke until the rainy season starts, Malaysia's
environment minister warned on Monday.
Facing
growing pressure, Indonesia earlier this month agreed to accept international
help after failing for weeks to douse the fires from slash-and-burn farming
that have shrouded angry neighbours Malaysia and Singapore in smoke for weeks.
But
Malaysia was forced once again to close schools in several areas Monday due to
unhealthy air, and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi
Tuanku Jaafar said the crisis could continue for another month.
"Unless
there is rain, there is no way human intervention can put out the fires,"
he told AFP on the sidelines of Malaysia's parliament session, warning that the
blazes were spread across "huge areas" of Indonesia.
Even the
multi-nation effort now under way "is not enough to put out the fires,"
he added.
"We
hope the rains will come in mid-November. It will be able to put out the
fires," Wan Junaidi said.
On Friday,
Indonesia launched its biggest fire-fighting assault yet, with dozens of planes
and thousands of troops battling the illegally started agricultural and forest
fires in its territory on the huge islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
Thirty-two
planes and helicopters -- including six aircraft from Singapore, Malaysia and
Australia -- were deployed to back up more than 22,000 personnel on the ground.
The fires
and resulting region-wide haze are an annual dry-season problem, but experts
warn the current outbreak is on track to become the worst ever, exacerbated by
tinder-dry conditions from the El Nino weather phenomenon.
The acrid
air has sparked health alerts, sent thousands to hospitals for respiratory
problems, and caused the cancellation of scores of flights and some major
international events across the region.
Indonesian
National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho also offered
sobering comments Monday, saying the fires were "yet to be overcome."
Sutopo said
satellite data indicated Indonesia now had more than 1,500
"hotspots", which are loosely defined as areas where fires are either
burning or where conditions are ripe for blazes to break out.
"The
actual number is higher as the satellite is not able to penetrate the thickness
of the haze in Sumatra and (Borneo)," he added.
Malaysia
enjoyed a brief spell of lowered haze last week, but the government -- which
has repeatedly ordered school closures across wide areas as a health precaution
-- did so again on Monday as skies once again reverted to the now-familiar
soupy gray.
Schools
were closed in several states and in the capital Kuala Lumpur as pollution levels
climbed well into the "unhealthy" range under the government's rating
system.
Air quality
in Singapore, however, improved Monday after entering "unhealthy"
levels over the weekend.
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