Artificial rain fell upon the provincial capital of Riau on Indonesia's Sumatra island Saturday after several weeks of smog pollution from nearby forest and bush fires, dpa quoted an official as saying. "After cloud seeding using Cassa and Hercules C-130 planes, rain finally fell upon (the provincial capital) Pekanbaru. Hopefully we can overcome this haze disaster soon," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, said Saturday. The rain was initiated after smog pollution in Pekanbaru reached hazardous levels in recent days, forcing the closure of its airport. Nugroho said the haze continued to shroud some parts of the province and parts of neighbouring province West Sumatra. The air quality in major parts of Riau was still hazardous and schools remained closed, he added. Visibility in Pekanbaru stood at 500 meters early on Saturday. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is slated to travel from Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, to Riau later on Saturday to directly oversee forest fire emergency operations, the spokesman said. "The president has given three weeks deadline for the operations to conclude. We are using all means," Nugroho said, adding that it took 12 days to put out a similar fire in 2013. -- SPA 14:45 LOCAL TIME 11:45 GMT تغريد
