Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The government should not hastily reject any foreign assistance regarding the handling of forest fires in several provinces across Kalimantan and Sumatra.
"The president's assistant should not reject foreign aid too early. It is better to consult with the president," Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Taufik Kurniawan stated here on Friday.
Kurniawan had earlier noted that Indonesia had declined Singapore's offer to assist its government in fighting forest fires.
"But now, the government is accepting any foreign aid to tackle forest fires," he pointed out.
He lauded President Joko Widodo who directly monitored the handling of forest and land fires.
"I hope the problem of forest and land fires can be solved soon," Kurniawan said.
He emphasized that the president's assistant should take serious steps to get rid of the haze as tens of thousands of Indonesians were being treated for upper tract respiratory infections caused by thick smoke.
Indonesia will cooperate with five countries to address land and forest fires in several regions as well as to handle the smoke, a spokesman from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry Arrmanatha Nasir stated here on Thursday.
"We think it is important to cooperate with countries that have the required resources to put out the fires and smoke. The five countries that will cooperate with us are Australia, China, Malaysia, Russia, and Singapore," Nasir remarked.
According to the spokesman, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno L.P. Marsudi had already spoken to the foreign ministers of Singapore, Australia, and Malaysia to discuss the cooperation.
"To this day, there are still about 110 hotspots, of which 11 are in Riau," he pointed out.
The Indonesian government will discuss the forms of assistance and cooperation to be undertaken with the five countries.
"This partnership still needs to be discussed, as there will be assistance and commercial-based cooperation," he remarked.
Nasir explained that Indonesia has undertaken several efforts to tackle land and forest fires and to reduce the spread of smoke.
"In essence, Indonesia has done its best to solve these problems. Not only firefighting but also prosecuting those found guilty of setting land and forest fires," he affirmed.
He revealed that in order to extinguish the fires, the Indonesian government had deployed 26 helicopters to conduct water bombing and a special aircraft to conduct weather modification to create artificial rain.
"Data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry revealed that 65 million liters of water had been poured over hotspots in five provinces, and 250 tons of salt has been used for weather modification," he noted. (WDY)
