Indonesia Prepares Cloud Seeding as Haze Returns
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Indonesia has prepared planes to artificially induce rain as neighboring Singapore and Malaysia raised concern that a resurgence in Sumatran forest fires has begun engulfing parts of Southeast Asia with haze again.
Satellite images showed the number of fire hotspots in the Sumatran province of Riau rose to 185 today from 165 yesterday, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster management agency, said by text message. With August to October the peak period for forest fires, six planes have been readied for cloud-seeding and soldiers placed on standby to be deployed as fire-fighters, the agency said in a July 22 statement.