"Haze from the forest fires have reached Singapore, thus we are to anticipate this matter," Head of Data and Information Center of BNPB Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said here Thursday.
BNPB will cooperate with the Application and Assessment of Technology Agency (BPPT) to make the artificial rain over the forest fires.
"BNPB will act as the coordinator while BPPT as the executive agent," Nugroho said.
The NOAA18 satellite on Tuesday (June 18) detected 148 hotspots over Riau Province, 26 over Jambi, 22 over West Sumatra, six over South Sulawesi and five hotspots over West Sumatra.
The satellite also detected some hotspots over neighboring countries such as Malaysia with eight hotspots and 29 hotspots spread over Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
There were also 17 hotspots over Myanmar.
However, the number of hotspots were less than those during the peak of dry season which often reach thousands.
Meanwhile, there were 850 hectares of peatland burning in Riau. The fire over 650 hectares of the peatland have been put off.
As many as 105 personnel are still struggling to put of the remaining fire, Nugroho said.
Haze from Sumatra`s forest and plantation fires has affected Singapore, Indonesia`s neighboring country.
Channel NewsAsia reported that Singapore`s air quality remained in the unhealthy range on Tuesday (June 18) morning as the island continued to be enveloped in haze.
The PSI reading hit 123 at 11am. The PSI has been climbing steadily since 7am where the PSI reading was at 106.
On Monday night, the PSI reading reached 155 at 10pm, the highest level since September 1997 when the index reached an all-time high of 226.
Singapore also urged Indonesia on Monday,to take measures to tackle its forest fires as smoke blown from Sumatra choked the city-state as well as parts of Malaysia.
Meanwhile Strait Times online reported the haze that shrouded Singapore on Monday was the worst in 16 years, and is expected to last for most of this week.
(A059/F001)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
