JAKARTA, July 19 — Hundreds of hectares of forests are reported to be still on fire in Riau province in Sumatra, believed to be due to the hot weather and open burning for agricultural purposes.

These fires were reported as far back as June.

Such fires are nothing new and are seen as an annual affair much to the consternation of neighbours like Malaysia and Singapore which have to put up with haze caused by them.

According to Indonesia’s Antara news agency, the authorities are intensifying efforts to put out the fires, including using 11 helicopters for water bombing.

Riau Regional Disaster Management Agency chairman Edward Sanger said the helicopter operations were being concentrated in Dumai, Rokan Hulu, Pelalawan and Siak.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency in a statement said that since early this year, more than 600 hectares of forests in Sumatra had been wiped out by fires.

It added that the agency hoped that rains forecast for later this month would douse this latest round of forest fires. — Bernama