Pekanbaru, Riau, (Antarariau.com) - The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) successfully developed artificial rain over Riau province to extinguish wildfires.
The southern parts of Bengkalis district saw heavy rain on Monday following the weather modification operations carried out by the BPPT, Head of the Artificial Rain Technical Unit of the BPPT, F. Heru Widodo, said here on Tuesday.
The agency deployed a Cassa 212 aircraft to carry out cloud seeding over the districts of Bengkalis, Siak, Pelalawan and Dumai city, Riau province, on Monday. The plane sowed some 800 kilograms of salt to trigger rain.
On Tuesday, the airplane was scheduled to make three sorties for cloud seeding, by carrying one ton of salt in each sortie.
In addition, the BPPT has requested to borrow a CN 295 aircraft from the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) for its cloud seeding operation.
"We sent a letter of request to the TNI commander, and are now waiting for a response. The Riau province has declared an emergency status over wildfires," he affirmed.
The Terra and Aqua Satellites detected nine hotspots of forest and plantation fires in Riau, with an accuracy rate of 70 percent, the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Station (BMKG) revealed on Tuesday.
Of these nine hotspots, six were found in Bengkalis district, two in Meranti Islands district, and one in Pelalawan district.
So far, the air quality over Riau has been found to be healthy.
Moreover, the government has declared a state of emergency to prevent and handle forest fires in Riau province.
"This step is aimed at preventing forest and field fires in 2015," a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBN), Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said on February 22.
Furthermore, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya has sought assistance from the BNPB to take emergency steps, following the potential spread of hotspots and fires in Bengkalis district of Riau province.
"The first effort involves carrying out cloud-seeding operations in the near future," Nugroho noted.
Artificial Rain Successfully Developed Over Riau
