Sprawling Indonesian cities on its most populated island Java lack modern waste management infrastructure to process hoards of solid trash produced each day.
Kurniawan on Thursday blamed the fire on discarded cigarette butts and called on residents not to throw them away, “especially in this drought season”.
He added that authorities were not well-equipped to douse the fire, so water bombs would be dropped from helicopters sent by the country’s national disaster management agency on Friday.
The local official announced a temporary location for garbage collection would be set up but called on residents to manage their waste independently.
West Java governor Ridwan Kamil said on Thursday that the country’s geophysics agency was attempting weather modification in the area, “so hopefully we will have rain” to douse the inferno.
Source: CNA
