Indonesia will drop salts into clouds to induce rain in an attempt to douse forest fires that have choked parts of the country and neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia, an official said today.

Two helicopters have been dispatched to Riau province near Sumatra island, where forest fires have raged for days, said Heru Widodo, the head of the government-run Weather Modification Technology Centre.

A C-130 Hercules cargo plane would follow tomorrow, he said.

“We will start cloud seeding tomorrow (Saturday), if the situation permits,” he said.

Cloud seeding involves firing salt-based chemicals into clouds to force out rain.

A similar method was used to try to divert rain away from the capital Jakarta following flooding in February.

Thick smog from the forest fires has blanketed much of Riau, Singapore and Malaysia, sending pollution indexes soaring to hazardous levels.

The Pollutant Standard Index reading in Singapore hit a new record high of 401, a level considered “hazardous”, at noon today.

Irritant in relations

The haze problem has become an irritant in relations between Indonesia and its tiny neighbour Singapore.

Singapore has criticised Indonesia for its handling of the fires and urged it to take “decisive” action. An Indonesian minister in return called Singapore “childish” for complaining about the haze.

Yesterday, Singapore representatives met with Indonesian officials in Jakarta to discuss the situation.

“Both sides recognised that the situation was serious and needed urgent attention,” said Andrew Tan, chief executive of Singapore’s National Environment Agency.

Singapore offered Indonesia an assistance package, which includes an aircraft for cloud seeding operations and high-resolution satellite pictures and hotspot coordinates.

Pharmacies in the city-state were struggling with a shortage of face masks.

In Malaysia, Deputy Health Minister Hilmi Yahaya said today that the Health Ministry had set up 11 monitoring stations in the southern states of Johor and Malacca, which have been hit badly by

the haze during the past few days.

“The situation is getting serious in the southern states,” he said. “The people are advised to stay home or wear masks when going outside.”

The environment department said that as of 11am, air quality in the towns of Kota Tinggi and Pasir Gudang had reached “hazardous” levels, while in two other towns pollution was at very

unhealthy levels.

- dpa