Head Of BNPB Encourages The Establishment Of Land Task Force To Handle Pasuruan Forest And Land Fires

JAKARTA - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lt. Gen. Suharyanto encouraged the formation of a Land Task Force involving personnel from the Forkopimda element to deal with forest and land fires on Mount Arjuno, Pasuruan, East Java.

"The Land Task Force is effective. Without the Land Task Force, we can extinguish the fire," said Suharyanto as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, September 9.

According to him, the most effective control efforts were carried out by extinguishing the land because the team was better able to reach the location and was able to find out exactly the position of the hotspots.

In addition, he said, the efforts to extinguish the fire carried out by the Land Task Force could be more focused and centralized so that the fire could be extinguished perfectly.

According to Suharyanto, the Land Task Force is considered more efficient than other methods, such as "water bombing", weather modification technology (TMC), and other efforts.

"The air operation is the last road. So the land operation was carried out first. Don't wait for the fire to grow. If the fire grows, it will be in vain," explained Suharyanto.

Suharyanto said the forest and land fire extinguishing strategy with "water bombing" was the last step because of the high costs that had to be incurred.

"It's a pity for the state to pay a heavy price," added Suharyanto.

In addition, "water bombing" operations require large water sources to be transported by plane to the hotspots, even though the location of water sources will be more difficult to find during the dry season like today.

Forest and land fires on Mount Arjuno that have occurred since August 28, 2023 have attracted the attention of the central government. This is because hotspots are reported to have spread from Malang, Pasuruan, Mojokerto to Batu City in the past week.

In total, the area of land burned from all areas has reached approximately 4,796 hectares with Pasuruan Regency being the area most affected, which is 2,724.48 hectares.