Heavy Rain Puts Out 110 Hotspots At OKU South Sumatra

The OKU BPBD Karhutla Task Force Team extinguished the fire of forest and land fires. (ANTARA/Edo Purmana/23)

BATURAJA- Heavy rains that flushed Baturaja City, Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU) Regency, South Sumatra on Thursday (19/10) evening had an impact on the outage of 110 forest and land fires (karhutla) in the area.

Manager of the OKU Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Gunalfi said heavy rains that occurred in some areas in his area at 17.50 WIB had an impact on decreasing the number of forest and land fires.

"In fact, thanks to yesterday's rain, the fire point of forest and land fires in OKU did not exist at all from the previous 110 points," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, October 20.

He stated that previously, almost every day the OKU BPBD received reports of forest and land fires that occurred in several sub-districts in the area.

With this rain, it is hoped that it can wet the land to reduce the potential for fires to spread from hotspots that appear during the long dry season.

"The only way to deal with forest and land fires is peatlands so that they remain wet. Because the peatland is once burned, it is difficult to extinguish and can only extinguish it except for heavy rains," he said.

Gunalfi said, based on a release from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the potential for rain clouds will still occur to this day, which is expected to overcome the problem of forest and land fires that occur in several districts/cities in South Sumatra.

"If it rains again, of course the problem of forest and land fires can be resolved so that South Sumatra is completely free from the smog disaster," he said.

Previously, heavy rains that flushed Baturaja City, OKU Regency were greeted with joy by people in the area after several months of drought due to long dryness.

According to Junai, one Baturaja resident admitted that the rain brought blessings to the community, especially those who experienced clean water difficulties and land fires that were rampant in the area due to the long dry season.

As a result of the long dry season, it has an impact on starting to dry up the Ogan River water, which is a source of livelihood for the people in the area.

During the dry season, the local community has difficulty getting clean water for their daily needs, so they are forced to buy tedmon water at a fairly expensive price.

"Hopefully it will rain again today so we don't have to buy tedmon water for daily needs," he said.