Air Quality In Jambi Decreased Due To Forest And Land Fires

The atmosphere of forest and land fires in Jambi. (ANTARA/HO/Pik)

JAMBI - The Jambi Province Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) assesses that air quality is decreasing and the current Air Pollution Standard Index (ISPU) is at 120 parameters, which means that in the moderate or unhealthy category due to forest and land fires (karhutla).

"The monitoring of the BMKG's Air Quality Monitoring System (AQMS) station shows that the air quality in Jambi is categorized as unhealthy due to the smoke fog that has enveloped Jambi City which has occurred since the last few days which has an impact on public health," said the BMKG Data and Information Coordinator for Class I Meteorological Station Sultan Thaha Jambi Annisa Fauziah as reported by ANTARA, Monday, September 4.

The public is asked to be vigilant when leaving the house and continue to use masks and drink lots of water to maintain health. The decline in air quality in Jambi City was caused by forest and land fires in South Sumatra and several districts in Jambi Province where smoke then moved to Jambi City due to wind turnover.

In almost all days, almost the entire Jambi City area has been covered in smog and according to information conveyed by the Jambi Province BMKG, the smog came from forest and land fires in South Sumatra and Jambi.

The Jambi Province BMKG also asked the Karhutla Task Force Team to move quickly in handling forest and land fires. So that the forest fires in Jambi did not grow like in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Jambi National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) deployed four helicopters to help extinguish forest and land fires in Jambi where the four helicopters consisted of two water bombing helicopters and patrols.

Plh. Head of the Jambi Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Dody Chandra, said the Karhutla Task Force had been trying to extinguish the fire that had been going on for the past week in several areas carried out from land and air routes.

The fire that occurred in Jambi was not only found in residents' land areas, but also in forest areas. The land in the forest caught fire allegedly due to illegal land clearing of Tanjung Jabung Barat.

Dody explained that the water bombing helicopter from Sinarmas helped the blackout and the latest data in Ramin Village, Muarojambi Regency, had also been extinguished and had been cooled for three days.