JAKARTA, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Japan will deploy three CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters and their 180 crew in Indonesia this weekend to help contain wildfires, Indonesian defence officials said on Tuesday.
Indonesia has intensified efforts to tackle wildfires that have been raging for months, focusing on six hardest-hit provinces on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, where 76,933 hectares (190,106 acres) of land have been burned.
The Japanese helicopters will arrive on Wednesday and will be based in Pontianak in West Kalimantan, the worst-affected province, where they will conduct flight tests prior to operations from September 12 to 19, said Tri Budi Utomo, an Indonesian Defence Ministry official.
The spread of the wildfires in the disaster-prone archipelago has been exacerbated by the onset of dry weather from June, with Indonesia deploying more than 50 aircraft for water bombing and seeding activities and expecting September to be its biggest battle.
The fires have caused widespread haze and spikes in air pollution levels in affected areas, prompting concern in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
The Chinooks are en route to Indonesia aboard the JS Kunisaki, a vessel previously deployed for disaster relief and humanitarian exercises, along with 150 of its personnel. The operation will be adaptive and dynamic based on the movement of fire hotspots, Tri told a press conference.
The conditions of forest and land fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra were still dynamic and the Indonesian military has deployed thousands of personnel to contain fire via land and air, Tri said.
The main challenge in containing fires was finding water sources, said Muhammad Nas, a spokesperson of the military, adding it had started drilling water sources in several areas.
(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy, Writing by Ananda Teresia; Editing by Martin Petty)
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