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Indonesian president suggests artificial rain to combat haze
Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri has asked the country's Forestry minister to consider using artificial rain to wash away choking smoke from forest and ground fires.
Indonesia's official Antara newsagency quotes the Forestry Minister, Muhammad Prakosa, as saying that Megawati asked him to discuss the possibility with the ministry of research and technology.
The Minister says artificial rain is the most feasible method to combat haze, but he did not say when or where the cloud-seeding method might be carried out.
Forest and ground fires in 1997 and 1998 damaged an area of 10-million hectares, mostly in Indonesia's Sumatra island and its section of Borneo island.
The end of the rainy season in some parts of Indonesia has led to the return of the fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra with the associated haze affecting Sumatra and parts of Malaysia and Thailand.
Most of the blazes are started by forest concessionaires, plantation owners or small farmers who use fire to clear land for cultivation.
1/09/01 10:02:00 | ABC Radio Australia News
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