Two Russian planes have arrived in the Indonesian province of South Kalimantan on Borneo island to battle fires behind the choking smoke haze that has engulfed the region.

The airplanes, which carried out similar operations in South Sumatra for a week, arrived after rains began to fall on Borneo, thinning the haze that has choked most of the island for months and blanketed parts of Malaysia and Singapore.

Anwar Budi, an airport official in Banjarmasin, the provincial capital of South Kalimantan, confirmed the aircraft had arrived.

Wibowo, an officer at the adjoining air force base, said that the schedule for the two airplanes was still being finalized.

The aircraft, which their manufacturer claims can each carry up to 12 tones of water to drop over forest fires, have been rented for 45 days, officials said.

Rains have begun to fall in South Kalimantan, including in the Kotabaru area on the edge of the Strait of Makassar, the meteorology office in Banjarmasin said.

Strong winds have also helped clear the sky over the regional capital, with visibility improving from 500 meters (yards) around 7:00 am (2300 GMT Tuesday) to 2,000 meters by noon, an official from the station, who declined to be named, said.

In Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan, which has been one of the worst sources of fires and smoke on Borneo, rains have began to fall regularly in the area.

“It is much better than in the previous days as quite substantial rains have begun in various regions of Central Kalimantan in the past few days,” said Hidayat, who heads the local meteorology station.

Visibility improved to around four kilometers around noon from around 500 meters at daybreak, he said. Palangkaraya has had visibility of below 100 meters in the morning for most of the past month because of the thick haze.

The outlawed practice of clearing land by fire for the upcoming planting season, as well as dormant fires in the peat lands that abound in Sumatra and Borneo, have been blamed for the extensive fires that have sent haze over parts of Indonesia and neighboring countries in recent years.

Weak enforcement of the law has allowed it to continue annually.

Popularity: 1% [?]