Karhutla Starts to Emerge, Kotim Regency Activates Emergency Alert Status

SAMPIT - The East Kotawaringin Regency Government (Kotim), Central Kalimantan (Kalteng) activated the emergency standby status for forest and land fires (Karhutla) for 30 days, starting from January 23 - February 21, 2026, following several land fires.

"We have held a coordination meeting (rakor) regarding the current conditions and situation in Kotim. After seeing the exposure from BPBD, BMKG and others, we decided to set the Emergency Karhutla Alert Status in Kotim," said the Acting Secretary of Kotim, Umar Kaderi, quoted by Antara, Friday, January 23.

Umar explained that the determination of this status was certainly based on several considerations, including the number of hotspots or hot spots that were quite significant in the last month.

Based on BPBD data taken from BRIN and BMKG monitoring, there were 61 hotspots in the period from January 1 to 21, 2026.

The Head of the Kotim BPBD Implementation, Multazam, said that in the last week his party received at least eight reports of karhutla incidents, some of which were successfully handled by the BPBD and some by the Disdamkarmat and the Fire Care Society (MPA).

"This condition indicates that the city area is potentially easily flammable," he said.

His party also highlighted the drastic decline in the groundwater water table, based on groundwater level data (TMAT) collected from several sources, the decline reached minus 35-60 cm.

In fact, it was said visually in the ring drain (ring channel) of the city of Sampit that the water had already decreased quite a lot.

"This ring drain is actually a buffer for water storage, so that the swamp area around the Baamang and Mentawa Baru Ketapang Districts should be well maintained," he said.

Responding to the forecast from the Kotim BMKG, there is a potential for rain at the end of January. This does not necessarily make Kotim completely safe from the danger of karhutla. Moreover, the forecast only covers about 30 percent of Kotim's territory.

"If it rains only in the north, while the central or southern areas do not, the potential for forest fires still exists. Kotim is in a longitudinal position from south to north, so it is possible that there are two seasons that take place simultaneously and it has happened before," he said.