Indonesia has started to cause artificial rains to prevent the outbreak of large wildfires that emit toxic smoke clouds in the dry season, a threat that could add to that of the coronavirus. Last year's fires were the worst since 2015 due to drought and some 1.6 million hectares burned in the Southeast Asian archipelago, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo .
"We are taking these measures before the fires start," said Tri Handoko Seto of the government agency BPPT Technologies. Authorities have started in the past two weeks to use cloud seeding technology to cause precipitation in Riau province, before spreading it elsewhere on Sumatra and Borneo. The operations could last throughout the dry season which extends until about September.
Schools forced to close
The effort will be directed in priority on the peat bogs, zones usually wet which become very flammable when they are dried, sometimes artificially to make room for crops. Fires in Sumatra and Borneo last year produced thick clouds of toxic smoke that forced many schools to close and spread to neighboring countries, Malaysia and Singapore.
The sky of Sumatra has become entirely red
A phenomenon linked to the forest fires which ravage Indonesia since the beginning of the month pic.twitter.com/uka9Os3jty
Authorities had deployed tens of thousands of firefighters and security forces to put out the fires, which are sometimes started intentionally to clean new areas for palm oil plantations. "According to our forecasts, the dry season this year should not have been as bad as last year (...) but you never know," noted Tri Handoko Seto.
"Avoid deadly smoke"
“If things get worse and we have a cloud of smoke like last year, we could use other techniques. Hopefully we don't come to that. ” The NGO Greenpeace has warned that the coronavirus crisis combined with a new toxic smoke cloud would pose serious risks to the population.
"This year we are facing a global health crisis and a virus that is affecting people's lungs," said an NGO spokesperson. Businesses and governments must have a strong sense of responsibility and take action to avoid the lethal smoke from forest fires that could add to the health threat to millions of people in the region. "
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