JAKARTA: Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has ordered the mobilisation of additional resources to combat wildfires, his government said on Tuesday, as criticism grew at home and abroad over Jakarta's response to fires that have blanketed the region in hazardous haze.
In a meeting with Indonesian authorities, Prabowo said he was ready to provide all the necessary resources to bolster firefighting operations across the country, a statement from the government's communication body said.
"This is a top priority for us. We must resolve it immediately," Prabowo was quoted as saying.
Haze from Indonesia's most intense El Niño-fueled wildfire season in 11 years has caused a spike in respiratory illnesses at home and a dramatic decline in air quality in Singapore and Malaysia, where schools in several states have been closed during the last few weeks.
According to Fire Emissions Watch, a portal developed by the European Union's Copernicus climate monitoring service, emissions from Indonesia's fires have been the highest in the world for a month, and made up almost half the global total over the last seven days.
Malaysia, which has closed schools in several states, has already offered assistance to contain the fires.
Smog-hit Singapore has also offered to help, and its Environment Minister Grace Fu said over the weekend that she had spoken to her Indonesian counterparts.
However, Jakarta has not yet discussed plans to accept foreign assistance to control the fires, or declare a national disaster, Coordinating Minister of Political Affairs Dudung Abdurachman told reporters.
"We are still able to handle this," Dudung said.
REGIONAL PRESSURE, HEALTH RISKS MOUNT
With Southeast Asian foreign ministers set to discuss the transboundary haze in a meeting next month, Jakarta is coming under increasing international pressure to do more to tackle the fires.
But in remarks that went viral on social media, Syahganda Nainggolan, the head of Indonesia's Government Communication Agency, hit back at some of the criticism.
"We don't only send haze... the oxygen in Singapore and Malaysia comes from our forests," he said.
In response, Sulung assemblyman Andrew Chen said Indonesia "must be held accountable."
"Indonesian spokespeople need to stop being indifferent and unapologetic to all Asean countries affected, including its own people, by human-induced haze pollution," he said on Monday.
"Allowing toxic haze containing PM2.5 fine particles to pollute the air of neighbouring countries is unacceptable," he added.
The number of cases of respiratory illness linked to the fires surged to 277,075 in seven Indonesian provinces alone as of October 12, Health Ministry data showed, more than double the 113,336 reported as of Sept 9.
Official data on the extent of the land damaged by fire has not been updated since July, when 202,000ha had been burned. The Forestry Ministry said it needed time to verify the latest data.
However, according to environment group Auriga, more than 637,000ha were damaged from January to August this year, nine times the area of Singapore. Deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas put the figure even higher at nearly 900,000 hectares.--REUTERS
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