Australia has deployed a military transport aircraft to help Indonesia put out wildfires in Borneo that are causing toxic haze across the region, both countries said.
The C-130 Hercules left Jakarta for East Kalimantan province on Thursday to join water-bombing efforts there. Indonesia’s disaster agency chief Kristomei Sianturi said there were still many hotspots in East Kalimantan.
The aircraft can drop 15,000 litres of water per sortie, or just over 100,000 litres a day, the Australian embassy in Indonesia said. Australia is also sending a Cessna Citation as a guide plane, along with 20 personnel including pilots, flight crew and paramedics, for an operation running from Nov 6 to 12.
Australian ambassador Rod Brazier described the two countries as enduring friends and recalled the help Indonesia gave Australia during its devastating bushfires in 2020.
The months-long blazes have burned huge tracts of land, harmed people’s health and drifted across borders. Deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas estimates that more than 1.9 million hectares were burned in the first nine months of the year, with experts linking much of the destruction to slash-and-burn land clearing for timber, palm oil and mining.
Indonesia’s health ministry said on Wednesday that more than 400,000 people in the country had been treated for acute respiratory illnesses caused by the haze. In September, Japan sent about 350 Self-Defense Forces personnel with three helicopters to help fight fires in West Kalimantan.