Indonesia: BMKG Forecasts Low Rainfall on September, Raises Forest and Land Fire Alert

Netral News 7 Sep 17;

JAKARTA, NETRALNEWS.COM - The Indonesia Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicts low to medium (0-300mm/month) rainfall in Indonesia for the month of September, particularly in Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, southern South Sulawesi, southern parts of Southeast Sulawesi , Buru Island, Maluku Province, and Sekiar, South Merauke, Papua Province.

Therefore, these areas need to be watched, because these conditions can trigger potential forest and land fires.

Raffles Panjaitan, Director of Forest and Land Fire Control at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said most of the causes of land/forest fires attributed to humans, as compared to weather conditions.

"The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has conducted various measures to prevent forest and land fires together with relevant parties and institutions to prevent smoke hazard from forest fires from happening again. One of the intensive efforts is conducted by Manggala Agni by continuing to socialize and coach the community," Raffles said on Thursday (9/7/2017).

Meanwhile on Tuesday (5/9/2017), Manggala Agni’s Tinggangea Operations Team conducted fire prevention efforts in one of sweet potato plantation areas in Tinanggea, sub-district of South Konawe Regency.

The fire was put out at 14.31 local time. The Manggala Agni team put out the fire through the assistance of Tinaggea Police personnel and the local community.

Fires had spread to the plantation area because of the wind that blew quite fast, hot weather and burning vegetation in the form of reeds that were very flammable. After 2 hours of trying to put out the fires at 2 points of approximately 6.66 ha, the fires were finally extinguished.

"The threat of forest and land fires can occur anywhere, not only in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Especially when the weather is still dry, very influential on the potential for forest and land fires across the territory of Indonesia ", said Raffles.

Raffles B. Panjaitan added, Manggala Agni scattered throughout Indonesia is always ready to handle forest and land fires that can happen at any time. Hotspot and weather monitoring is also conducted daily, to find out the latest conditions and early detection of karhutla in the work area of Daops.

Equally important, coordination across agencies and other stakeholders is also continuously enhanced in order to mitigate these efforts optimally. "

The monitoring result of Forest and Land Fire Control Post on September 5, 2017 at 20.00 WIB on NOAA19 Satellite was observed 10 with details of Bangka Belitung Province 5 points (Belitung, Central Bangka, Bangka, West Bangka), East Java three points (Sidoarjo Regency, Banyuwangi, Situbondo), South Sumatera one point (Ogan Ilir Regency), and East Kalimantan 1 point (Berau District).

Public awareness in anticipating karhutla is very important, in addition to supervision and coordination to prevent the spread of fire spread. "Through Manggala Agni members, we always appeal and give understanding related to the ban on land burning, so that the prevention of karhutla can be effective," Raffles added.

Based on Satellite TERRA AQUA (NASA) and Satellite TERRA AQUA (LAPAN) the confidence level of ≥80% shows the same number of hotspots as 29 points with 2 points in South Sumatra, 2 points in West Sulawesi, 11 points in East Nusa Tenggara, 1 point in Nusa Tenggara Barat, 1 point in Gorontalo, 1 point in East Kalimantan, 6 points in South Sulawesi, and 5 points of Central Sulawesi.