Haze-Free Riau, Minister Siti Nurbaya: Thank You For Your Hard Work

Minister of Environment and Forestry (LHK) Siti Nurbaya (DOK. Ministry of LHK)

JAKARTA - Minister of Environment and Forestry (LHK) Siti Nurbaya expressed her gratitude to all parties and felt grateful that Riau was free from the haze caused by forest and land fires (karhutla).

He conveyed this when he visited Muktisari Village, Tapung District, Riau.

According to him, various policy corrections and actions in the field resulted in the suppression of forest and land fires. Moreover, he remembers that in 2015, when he and President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) visited Riau, at that time the distribution of hotspots made the community finally surrounded by smog.

"2016 (corrective steps, red) are starting to run. 2017 forest and land fires began to decrease, 2018 also fell. 2019 had many more, especially in Kalimantan. Alhamdulillah, I am grateful that 2020 Riau is smoke free. With all humility, in front of all ladies and gentlemen, I am Say thank you to the people of Riau. Thank you for all your hard work, "said Minister Siti in a written statement received by VOI, Friday, November 13.

"I convey greetings from President Joko Widodo. He continues to love Riau Province. I am also grateful for the Governor's Vision and Mission which is in line with the National agenda. We will always be with the people of Riau," he added.

Siti explained that controlling forest and land fires has been a priority for the government besides carrying out infrastructure development. This control is also not only about carrying out blackouts but also taking precautions through various policy corrections ranging from a permit moratorium, improved peat governance, environmental law enforcement, granting rights to social forestry management, TORA, and various other fundamental policy corrections.

In addition, through Presidential Instruction 3/2020, forest and land fire control is carried out collectively from various ministries / agencies, including the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Meanwhile at the operational level, the control of forest and land fires involves working together with members of the Manggala Agni KLHK brigade, the Regional Government Fire Service (Damkar), TNI, Polri, BNPB, BPBD, BPPT, BMKG, private sector, and various other elements of the Nation's children.

From this collaboration, Indonesia can avoid the duet of forest and land fires and COVID-19 disasters. Moreover, currently prevention efforts are also being carried out through Weather Modification Technology (TMC) which is intensively carried out in provinces prone to hotspots.

Siti said, since it was activated on February 11, 2019, the Riau Provincial Government has finally ended the status of the 2020 forest and land fire alert disaster. During this time, the Air Pollution Standard Index (ISPU) in Riau also did not show dangerous or unhealthy levels.

As for the comparison of the total number of hotspots from January 1 to October 20, based on the Terra / Aqua (NASA) satellite with a confident level of ≥80 percent, specifically for hotspots in Riau in that period in 2019 there were 3,032 points. But thanks to the support and hard work of all parties, hotspots in 2020 can be pushed down to 327 points.

Overall in Indonesia during the same period, the number of hotspots from 25,453 points to 2,191 hotspots. This means that there is a decrease in the number of hotspots by 23,261 points or 91.39 percent. So, he asked that this cooperation be maintained.

"Let's take the same steps. As the President's message, our development must be in line with environmental restoration. Environmental problems occur due to years of long problems, and now we are fixing one of them through the Job Creation Law. Services for the people must be as fast, simple as possible. , bribery transactions are not allowed, public matters must be resolved properly, "he concluded.