GOVT ALLOCATES RP 100 BILLION IN DEALING WITH FOREST FIRES
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has proposed an allocation of Rp 100 billion which will be taken from the state budget to overcome forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said.
"The president has requested an allocation of some Rp 100 billion to overcome the haze. I came to the House of Representatives last night and the government will propose such allocation from the national disaster handling fund," Aburizal said after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the presidential office here on Thursday.
The minister said such amount will be used among other things to lease helicopters and aircraft which will be used to carry water bombs or Hercules aircraft for cloud seeding.
"On Sunday (Oct 15) two helicopters which we have hired from Malaysia will start carrying 9,000 liters of water bombs," the minister said, adding that another hired helicopter is also expected to come from Australia.
In addition, the cloud seeding would be carried out two days before the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency decided that cloud seeding is feasible.
According to him, the first cloud seeding will be carried out in Jambi province (Sumatra) and the second in Central Kalimantan province.
The haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan which has been going on for the last two months, had caused disappointment of two neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Singapore.
Previously, Forestry Minister Malam S. Ka`ban said that the haze in the past several days was the result of smoke accumulating from forest and bush fires raging in the previous days.
He said that there were about 6,000 hotspots in Indonesia in the past weeks but now their number had dropped to 600. The decrease was thanks to the use of water bombs from helicopters.(*)
Copyright © 2006 ANTARA
October 13, 2006
"The president has requested an allocation of some Rp 100 billion to overcome the haze. I came to the House of Representatives last night and the government will propose such allocation from the national disaster handling fund," Aburizal said after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the presidential office here on Thursday.
The minister said such amount will be used among other things to lease helicopters and aircraft which will be used to carry water bombs or Hercules aircraft for cloud seeding.
"On Sunday (Oct 15) two helicopters which we have hired from Malaysia will start carrying 9,000 liters of water bombs," the minister said, adding that another hired helicopter is also expected to come from Australia.
In addition, the cloud seeding would be carried out two days before the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency decided that cloud seeding is feasible.
According to him, the first cloud seeding will be carried out in Jambi province (Sumatra) and the second in Central Kalimantan province.
The haze in Sumatra and Kalimantan which has been going on for the last two months, had caused disappointment of two neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Singapore.
Previously, Forestry Minister Malam S. Ka`ban said that the haze in the past several days was the result of smoke accumulating from forest and bush fires raging in the previous days.
He said that there were about 6,000 hotspots in Indonesia in the past weeks but now their number had dropped to 600. The decrease was thanks to the use of water bombs from helicopters.(*)
Copyright © 2006 ANTARA
October 13, 2006
posted by Zumrowi Yunus at
11:37 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home