Expensive But Effective, Water Boombing Is Still The Main 'gun' Of The Ministry Of Law And Forestry To Put Out Forest And Land Fires

The water bomber helicopter while operating extinguished the forest and land fires in South Sumatra. (ANTARA PHOTO/Nova Wahyudi)

The Ministry of Forestry stated that the operation of water bombers or water booming using helicopters was still a mainstay for controlling forest and land fires (karhutla) in Indonesia.

"Not only extinguishing it, including for the prevention of forest and land fires, we still need it," said the Head of the Sub-Directorate for Forest and Land Fire Management (PKHL) of the Ministry of Forestry, Israr Albar in a webinar held by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) in Jakarta, Thursday.

He explained that there are several considerations that still require the government to carry out water bombers using this helicopter. For example, the spread of fire in a large area so that it can no longer be controlled by the ground extinguishing team and coupled with dynamic weather conditions leading to drought or certain secondary destinations, such as important state activities.

"With good calculations, this method is quite effective because it can reach the entire area in a concise time and is very helpful in controlling forest and land fires," he said.

However, he emphasized, in principle there is not a single permanent solution for forest and land fires other than preventing and increasing the capacity of the people around the fire-prone area. The water bomber technology approach is only short-term due to the large cost that must be incurred by the government.

The Ministry of Transportation noted that the rental fee for water bomber helicopters was around Rp. 80 million-Rp. 200 million per hour. The total amount when referring to data from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) in 2019, the national forest and land fires control budget reached Rp. 6.7 trillion with 70 percent of them or around Rp. 3.6 trillion used for the rental of this helicopter.

"Control of the potential of forest and land fires in South Sumatra alone issued a budget worth IDR 1.2 trillion coincidentally at that time to host the Asean Games," he said.