Mataram City Government Ready To Buy Tree Health Detection Devices To Guess When It Will Fall

Evacuation of fallen trees on Pejanggik Street, Mataram City, NTB. (ANTARA/Kominfo)

NTB - The Mataram City Government (Pemkot) immediately purchased a tree health detector to be used in checking trees in public locations.

Mataram Mayor H Mohan Roliskana said the tool was used to find out some parts of the tree that were hollow and rotting so as to minimize the occurrence of fallen trees.

"That's why, we immediately bought the tool so that we don't just rely on manual tools," he said in Mataram, Thursday, March 7, which was confiscated by Antara.

If you only rely on manual equipment, he said, it will be very difficult to detect the condition and health of trees because the average condition of the trees on the outside looks fresh and fine.

"But suddenly it fell, and after checking it turned out that the stem had been porous," he said.

For this reason, he said, the city government ensured that tree health detection devices known as the "picus sonic tomograph" would also be purchased this year because they were considered a priority requirement.

Moreover, a number of big cities in Indonesia already have this tool, such as the Malang City Government which purchased the equipment for IDR 550 million.

"With the price of sophisticated equipment, it doesn't matter, we are ready to buy it," he said.

In addition to buying tools, the Mataram City Government has also been looking for tree health experts who can find out if the condition of the tree is still good or has been porous.

So far, he said, when a tree fell, especially when there were victims, various anticipatory efforts that had been made by the Mataram City Government through the Environment Agency (DLH) were considered not optimal.

In fact, long before entering extreme weather, DLH had made efforts to trim the branches of protective trees, especially on Langko Street and Pejanggik Street, which had the most large protective trees hundreds of years old.

"But what is called a disaster, we cannot avoid it even though we have tried our best. However, we must continue to take anticipatory steps," he said.