Indonesia: Satellites detect 13 hotspots in Riau

Antara 6 May 16;

Pekanbaru (ANTARA News) - The Terra and Aqua satellites detected 13 hotspots in five districts in Riau Province, on Friday at 5 a.m. local time.

"Based on a monitoring by the Terra and Aqua satellites at 5 a.m. Western Indonesian Standard Time (WIB) today, 13 hotsptos are detected in five districts in Riau," Sugarin, head of the Pekanbaru meteorology station, said.

Pelalawan District has five hotspots, Siak four, Indragiri Hilir two, Meranti and Indragiri Hulu one each.

Riau is predicted to experience summer again from May to August this year.

To anticipate forest fires, military and police officers have built thousands of canals to maintain humidity of peatland.

The Peatland Restoration Agency has planned to make artesian wells as water resources needed in case of forest fires.

The Riau Forest Fire Task Force has also deployed two MI-8 helicopters to carry out water bombings to extinguish fires.

The Russian helicopters are staying in Riau until June 2016, as part of the governments efforts to prevent forest fires.

On March 7 this year, the Riau provincial government declared an emergency alert status.

The status effective for three months, is aimed at expediting the measures to handle and prevent forest and land fires.

Riaus district administrations of Meranti, Bengkalis, Dumai, Rokan Hilir, Siak, and Pelalawan had earlier also declared the emergency alert status.
(Uu.F001)