Acting Governor Of South Sumatra Asks BNPB To Extend The Working Period Of The TMC Team

Acting Governor of South Sumatra Agus Fatoni (ANTARA/Yudi Abdullah/23)

PALEMBANG - Acting Governor of South Sumatra Agus Fatoni asked the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) to extend the working period of the weather modification technology team (TMC) several weeks in November 2023.

"The working period of the TMC team which ended at the beginning of this month was asked to extend the BNPB to carry out artificial rain maximizing the prevention of forest and land fires (karhutla)," said Acting Governor Agus Fatoni in Palembang as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, November 2.

According to him, in addition to making efforts to TMC, to strengthen the Manggala Agni Daops team of Sumatra XVII, especially to deal with fires in areas prone to forest and land fires, Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI) Regency, three excavators were sent.

Each of these excavators will be sent from the South Sumatra Plantation Service as many as one unit that will be used to build a burning bulk, and two units will be sent by the South Sumatra Province Water Resources Management Service (PSDA) to normalize the canal which will be supplied with water pumped from the Komering River to the location of the 18-kilo meter fire point.

"Currently, the rainfall is still minimal, to maximize the control of forest and land fires, it is necessary for TMC or artificial rain and land operations," he said.

He explained that the hot weather in the 2023 dry season influenced by El Nino was prolonged causing drought, so the South Sumatra forest and land fires control team had difficulty getting water.

"Oning through water bombings from helicopters takes a long time to get water, it is also limited to SOPs, therefore what needs to be strengthened is the effort to extinguish the ground which is commanded by Manggala Agni," said Acting Governor of South Sumatra.

Meanwhile, the Head of PPI Manggala Agni Daops XVII Sumatra, Ferdian Krisnanto, said that it was necessary to emphasize the community to stop burning land, because the efforts to modify the weather through artificial rain are very small in the success rate if rain clouds do not form.

"Meanwhile, the formation of these clouds requires evaporation of water or evacuation, and evacuation cannot occur if the air is filled with forest and land fire smoke," said Ferdian.