Indonesia thanks to Russia and Japan to help control fire causing dry blindness

The Indonesian president proposed four countries, including Russia and Japan, to help stamp out the fire, which caused the thick dry haze to spread across the region for weeks.

Indonesia called for help to extinguish the fire causing dry haze

"We have offered to help and have received help from Singapore," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said today in a statement, adding that he also wanted to ask Russia, Malaysia and Japan to help. "We hope this will speed up the process of burning on peat land different from normal forest fires , " Reuters quoted him as saying.

Indonesia has previously refused to offer assistance from countries to deal with haze. The main cause of this phenomenon is the burning of forest companies to plant oil palm plantations and plantations for the wood and pulp industries on Sumatra and Borneo. The fire helped burn the plants, but the fire was smoldering for weeks in underground peat mines.

An Indonesian man extinguished in South Sumatra province.(Photo: AFP).

President Widodo did not say how Singapore helped Indonesia, but said he needed at least three aircraft from Singapore and Russia."What we need is that planes can carry between 12 and 15 tons of water, not the only two or three tons we have , " he said.

Dry haze has pushed pollution to dangerous levels across regions in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand, disrupting many flights and schools are closed during bad environmental conditions. In Vietnam, the Southern Regional Hydro-meteorological Station also identified this phenomenon in Ho Chi Minh City and some Southern provinces.

Indonesia has repeatedly denied complaints, saying it will act to prevent burning, but year after year, the problem recurs during the dry season. Pollution this year has become worse due to the El Nino phenomenon causing unusual drought conditions.

Indonesia's national disaster management agency said last week it hoped the rain would fall, helping to put out the fire in early November, when the northeast monsoon started.