694 Karhutla Points Hit Sumatra, Commission IV Of The DPR Calls The KMS System Failed To Anticipate Disasters

Illustration of forest and land fires (karhutla). (Unsplash-John Towner)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of Commission IV of the Indonesian House of Representatives Alex Indra Lukman highlighted the forest and land fires (karhutla) disaster on the island of Sumatra which has reached 694 hotspots. Alex assessed that the Government had not optimized the data produced by the Karhutla Monitoring System (KMS) system, thus failing to take anticipatory steps to spread the disaster of forest and land fires.

Alex also mentioned the smog in Riau which extends to neighboring countries. Where based on the records of the Pekanbaru Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Riau Province contributed as many as 259 hotspots or almost 40 percent of the total forest and land fires in Sumatra.

The hot spot in Riau Province, also triggers a smog fog, which based on satellite imagery on Sunday, July 20, 2025, has reached Malaysia in the afternoon and evening," Alex told reporters, Monday, July 21.

"Seharusnya, kuantitas titik panas yang terus menunjukkan graph peningkatan sudah bisa terbaca oleh teknologi KMS, yang disebut mampu melahirkan data secara real time dan keprecision tinggi," lanjut Legislator dari Dapil Sumatera Barat I itu.

To note, the KMS system involves Global Forest Watch Fires (GFW-Fires) is an online platform to monitor and respond to forest and land fires in Southeast Asia. This KMS works based on high-resolution satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe (leading satellite image provider).

The GWF-Fires system is able to transmit the image of the latest forest fires with a resolution of 50x50 cm. With this complete data and capabilities, Alex assessed, the KMS should have obtained the exact location of the fire and estimated the party responsible for the incident.

"KMS, which is under the control of the BP REDD+ Jakarta Office, has three purposes of use, namely prevention, supervision and law enforcement. In the 2025 Karhutla case, BP REDD+ has not yet seen its performance in the eyes of the public," said Alex.

In addition, Alex said that the Riau Water booming helicopter belonging to the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) could not be used as a note of other minuses. In the end, efforts to extinguish Forest and Land Fires can only be carried out by ground personnel with all their limitations.

"We pray for Manggala Agni personnel along with the TNI, Polri, BPBD and other volunteers who fight to extinguish the blaze on land, still given health by God Almighty," he said.

"Everything has struggled to tame the flames that are even done with sticks, because there are no water sources around the Karhutla location," added Alex.

Alex regretted that the occurrence of Karhutla continued to repeat itself every year, which then caused a smog disaster and also caused health problems, disruptions to life activities to protests from neighboring countries.

According to Alex, it is time for the REDD+ Management Agency to prove its presence that this institution is indeed useful for supporting Asta Cita Presiden Prabowo Subianto in realizing the acceleration of poverty alleviation, improving the quality of human resources and high, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

"It's also time, this BP REDD+ data is used for law enforcement related to Karhutla which has become a subscription in Riau Province," he said.

"This law enforcement is important, given the temperature conditions for almost the entire island of Sumatra in an increasing position. At some points, it has exceeded the average of the last 10 years for daily temperatures," said Alex.

Previously, the Pekanbaru BMKG on Saturday, July 19, recorded 694 hotspots in all provinces on the island of Sumatra. In a release issued by the Pekanbaru BMKG, Riau Province contributed almost 40 percent of the total hotspots on the island of Sumatra or 259 hotspots. Meanwhile, other provinces, namely North Sumatra, contributed 192 hotspots and West Sumatra 104 hotspots.

BMKG Pekanbaru also detailed that two districts in Riau were the biggest contributors to hotspots, namely Rokan Hulu Regency with 107 hotspots and Rokan Hilir with 95 hotspots. Following it is Dumai City with 17 hotspots, Siak Regency 15 points and Kampar 10 points.

The complete distribution of hot spots in the Riau area is Rokan Hulu 107 points, Rokan Hilir 95 points, Dumai City 17 points, Siak 15 points, Kampar 10 points, Pelalawan seven points. Then Bengkalis five points, Kuantan Singingi two points and Indragiri Hulu one hot spot.