Indonesia Tests Dry-Ice Dispersal as Toxic Haze Spreads
Indonesia is testing dry-ice dispersal as a new approach to toxic haze from widespread fires. A Cessna aircraft was to disperse 1.5 tons of dry ice over Palembang city in South Sumatra on Thursday to ease smoke and improve air quality and visibility, The Guardian.
Coordinating security minister Dudung Abdurachman announced the plan for South Sumatra. He said the trial was being carried out under the president's direct instruction. The government said it would first observe the results and may use the method in other regions if effective.
The trial follows earlier efforts to fight the 2026 fires, including cloud seeding, water bombing and deploying army personnel. Since January, almost 900,000 hectares have burned across Indonesia in the worst fire season in more than a decade. Tens of thousands of people have sought treatment for respiratory illness linked to the haze.
Smoke has drifted beyond Indonesia into Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Singapore began distributing N95 masks to eligible residents and rolled out subsidies for haze-related medical treatment starting on Monday, a measure last activated in 2015. Timor-Leste said it would shut schools nationwide for three days from Thursday and urged families to keep children indoors or use respiratory protection.
Dry ice, solid carbon dioxide, has been used since the 1940s to promote ice formation in clouds. In early October, thick haze from peat fires in South Sumatra turned the sky yellow. From 1 to 7 September, fire emissions reached 19.7 million metric tons, overtaking Russia's to become the world's highest for that week, Reuters.
