The government says cloud seeding, which uses substances such as silver iodide and salts to trigger rain, could help douse fires and rewet flammable peatlands.
Personnel from Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency load sodium chloride into an aircraft before a cloud-seeding mission at Tjilik Riwut Airport in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan.
REINA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
PALANGKARAYA (AFP) — Indonesia is turning to cloud seeding to fight wildfires that have burned more than 100,000 hectares this year amid a strong El Niño and worsening dry conditions.
The government says cloud seeding, which uses substances such as silver iodide and salts to trigger rain, could help douse fires and rewet flammable peatlands.
Indonesia carried out 252 cloud-seeding operations from 2021 through August this year, up from 85 in the previous decade, according to the BMKG weather agency.
But experts question how effective the technique can be during the dry season, when clouds are scarce.
“Its effectiveness will be very low because of the lack of clouds,” said I Putu Santikayasa, a hydroclimatology lecturer at IPB University.
Authorities have also deployed nearly 50,000 firefighters and are using satellite monitoring, ground patrols and peatland rewetting to contain the fires.
Environmental groups, however, say cloud seeding addresses only the symptoms and not the underlying causes, including rainforest and peatland conversion.
Indonesia’s fires regularly send hazardous haze into neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. Recent smoke from Borneo has already pushed up air pollution levels in parts of Malaysia, prompting school closures.
El Niño, which typically brings drier conditions to Indonesia, is expected to intensify the country’s wildfire risk this year.
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