Indonesia drops 2.4 tonnes of dry ice over South Sumatra to tackle haze

JAKARTA: Indonesia has deployed 2.4 tonnes of dry ice over South Sumatra provice on Sumatra island in a bid to disperse thick haze from forest and land fires.

National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Disaster Data, Information and Communication Centre acting head Berton Panjaitan said the two-day operation from Oct 15 to Oct 16 initially focused on the area around Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport in Palembang, where thick haze had disrupted flights. 

“The weather modification operation over the two days involved three flights, with a total flying time of seven hours and three minutes,” he said in a statement on Saturday (Oct 17), cited in local media.

Visibility at the airport improved from 1,000m to as much as 3,000m during the operation, according to Berton. However, he added, further research is needed to determine whether the improvement was caused by the dry ice or other weather factors.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said in a separate statement that smoke from forest and land fires briefly reached the atmosphere over Greater Jakarta on Friday but had begun moving away on Saturday, with no evidence of an impact on ground-level air quality. 

Berton said dry ice was being tested as an alternative method to disperse haze by weakening atmospheric conditions that trap smoke near the ground, potentially allowing it to rise and improve visibility.

South Sumatra is among six provinces prioritised by Indonesia for forest and land fire prevention and response, alongside Riau, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan, with 189 high-confidence hotspots recorded in the province as of Friday night.

It is also the first Indonesian province selected to test the dry-ice technique, which Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachman said was being carried out on the direct instructions of President Prabowo Subianto to accelerate efforts to mitigate the impact of the fires.

The operation will be evaluated to determine how effective the technique is at dispersing haze and whether it can be deployed in other affected regions.

The trial is the latest in a series of efforts to find new ways to combat fires that have repeatedly blanketed the region in haze.

Other methods include a Portuguese powder called Realiza Antichamas which forms a fire-suppressing gel when mixed with water. 

The product has been trialled in South Sumatra and Kalimantan, and would be deployed by helicopter as well as by ground crews, according to Dudung, as quoted by regional media reports. 

He added that the gel did not harm wildlife nor kill plants. 

However, Dudung acknowledged that, while results “were optimal”, the gel was still in trial stages. 

Demonstrations cited in media reports did not establish whether the gel could extinguish fires already smouldering deep underground.