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An Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft will be used as the main asset for the cloud seeding operations

Cloud seeding operations will be carried out in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya following worsening haze conditions in Malaysia, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.

The agency said the operations would be scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

“However, the operations are subject to weather conditions and the availability of suitable clouds for the seeding process,” its director general, Meor Ismail Meor Akim, said in a statement on Saturday.

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The operations will be carried out by the agency in collaboration with the Malaysian Meteorological Department, Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia and the Air Force.

An Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft will be used as the main asset for the cloud seeding operations.

Malaysia and Singapore are registering unhealthy air conditions caused by Indonesia’s most intense wildfires in 11 years. Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni has warned that the wildfires could continue until November this year.

On Friday, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto said ⁠⁠he would receive aid from Malaysia to help contain forest and land fires that have been raging for weeks.

Kuala Lumpur offered three helicopters, an aircraft and 52 personnel to help put out the wildfires, Prabowo said in a statement after meeting Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at his house on the outskirts of Jakarta.

“Malaysia has offered assistance to help us address the forest fires in Kalimantan. I welcome this with gratitude and pleasure,” Prabowo said.

The ⁠fleet and firefighter teams would arrive in Indonesia soon, he said, without giving further details.

In a meeting with his cabinet, the president said there would be zero tolerance for people or corporations found responsible for starting wildfires.

“I have asked the state secretary and the minister of law to look into this further, specifically regarding legal sanctions,” he said late on Wednesday.

Following Prabowo’s remarks, Indonesian police official Mohammad Irhamni told reporters on Thursday that police had launched 219 criminal investigations linked to the fires, with 162 people named as suspects so far.

Police were also investigating 95 companies, he added, but did not disclose how many of them were suspected of criminal offences.

“We in law enforcement are striving to identify the perpetrators of the burning, whether individuals or corporations, as this criminal act has already occurred and caused harm to the public,” Irhamni said.

Indonesia has deployed more than 50 aircraft to conduct water bombing and cloud seeding operations to help battle the fires.

Japan also joined Indonesia’s water bombing operations on Wednesday and Thursday. Japan sent over three CH-47 Chinook helicopters last week but poor flight conditions delayed their participation.

From January to July this year, fires raged across 202,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of land, government data showed. Environmental group YKAN has estimated that fire damaged another 600,000 hectares in August.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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