Syamsudin Noor Airport Area Vulnerable To Forest And Land Fires, South Kalimantan Provincial Government Opens Sluice Doors Do Wetting

Implementation of wetting land for priority areas for forest and land fires in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Thursday (31/8/2023). (ANTARA/HO-Pemprov South Kalimantan)

SOUTH KALIMANTAN - Provincial Government (Pemrov) of South Kalimantan (Kalsel) carried out wetting of land by opening floodgates in areas prone to forest and land fires (karhutla) in the Syamsudin Noor Airport area, Banjarbaru City.

South Kalimantan Governor Sahbirin Noor explained that the move was an effort to anticipate forest and land fires getting wider due to the dry season that hit Indonesia, including South Kalimantan.

"Kalsel has quite a lot of irrigation areas, this can minimize forest and land fires," he said in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Thursday, August 31, which was confiscated by Antara.

The South Kalimantan Provincial Government, he said, carried out the wetting of the first phase of the land using a pump engine owned by the Kalimantan III River Basin Center with a capacity of 2,500 liters per second.

"The opening of these waterways is an option during the dry season," he said.

He hopes that his staff, including land owners, will always monitor land conditions to prevent wider forest and land fires, especially in the Syamsudin Noor Airport area.

He said the airport area was a priority for handling forest and land fires to avoid smog that could disrupt flight activities.

According to Sahbirin Noor, disruptions to aviation activities caused economic conditions, health, and other sectors to become unstable.

Meanwhile, Head of the Drainage, River and Coast Sections of the South Kalimantan Public Works and Spatial Planning (PUPR) Herry Ade Permana said his party opened a water channel to wet unburned peatlands.

His party also built an open channel facility with a length of 650 meters using the 2020 APBD.

According to him, the construction of the open channel is able to flow irrigation water to the reservoir or water reservoir location in the Syamsudin Noor Airport area.

"The peat area must remain humid because it is quite prone to forest and land fires during the dry season," he said.