The Jakarta Post 23 Aug 18;
The police have said four people had died in the past month because of forest fires in West Kalimantan.
West Kalimantan Police chief Insp. Gen. Didi Haryono said on Wednesday that four people from different regencies had died from different causes as a result of forest fires.
The two victims in Melawi regency named Vito, 7, and Rio, 11, experienced severe burns. Vito died on Aug. 12 near his house while Rio died on Aug. 16 after being transferred to Soedarso Hospital in Pontianak, the capital city of West Kalimantan.
A resident of Sambas regency, Jaidan, 56, also died from smoke inhalation on Aug. 16, while trying to put out a fire in his farm.
The latest reported victim was Ensungga, 69, a resident of Sintang regency. His charred body was found on Monday. A day before, he left the house saying he wanted to put out a fire in his farm.
Didi said the impacts of forest fire were extremely dangerous.
“In terms of health, smoke inhalation can damage children's cerebral nerves and can cause disease,” he said.
Fire also disrupts the distribution of staple foods, he said.
Forest fires in the province are believed to be a result of slash-and-burn practices for land clearance. (sau/swd)
Water-bombing helicopters, artificial rain deployed to fight forest fires in W. Kalimantan
Karina M. Tehusijarana
The Jakarta Post 24 Aug 18;
Government agencies have deployed 10 water-bombing helicopters to extinguish forest and wildfires that have been plaguing West Kalimantan over the last month.
“The joint team continues its struggle to put out the forest and wildfires,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement on Thursday.
Besides the helicopters, the BNPB is also working with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Indonesian Military (TNI) to create artificial rain by seeding clouds with sodium chloride, Sutopo added.
“It has rained unevenly in the past few days, which has helped reduce the fires,” he said.
As of Thursday, Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) satellites had detected 885 hot spots in the province, more than in any other province. Four people have died as a result of forest fires in the province over the last month.
Sutopo said the fires were exacerbated by the local custom of burning fields before clearing land during the dry season.
“The residents of the Sanggau, Sambas, Ketapang, and Kubu Raya regencies have a tradition called gawai serentak where they prepare for the planting season by burning,” he said. “The regional government has forbidden it but it is still practiced in many places.”
He added that local police would continue patrols to stop such deliberate burning.
The BMKG has also issued a warning that increasingly dry weather could trigger even more fires during the peak of the dry season from August to September. (swd)
