Head of BNBP Reviews Handling of Forest and Land Fires in South Sumatra

PALEMBANG - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lt. General Of National Military (TNI) Suharyanto accompanied by the Governor of South Sumatra Herman Deru reviewed the handling of forest and land fires (karhutla).

"I and the Governor of South Sumatra have directly inspected from above, air and land the handling of forest and land fires," he said in Palembang, as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, September 12.

Based on a review carried out by the Head of the BNPB, the land cultivated by the community in the Banyuasin Regency area is classified as safe from fire.

In the Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) Regency area, Suharyanto said, fires mostly occurred on abandoned land.

The OKI region is classified as prone to forest and land fires. According to Governor Herman Deru, South Sumatra has peatland covering an area of 1.2 hectares and around 600 hectares of it is in OKI.

To support the handling of forest and land fires in South Sumatra, the BNPB provided ready-to-use funds of IDR 4.5 billion as well as operational equipment assistance such as portable pumps, nozzles, personal protective equipment, main pumps, medium pumps, hoses, tanks, command post tents, velbeds, floating pumps, as well as communication tools.

In addition, the BNPB moved two water bombing helicopters from Riau and West Kalimantan Provinces to South Sumatra and coordinated with the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency to apply weather modification technology in South Sumatra to help extinguish forest and land fires.