JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Forestry (Wamenhut) Rohmat Marzuki said preparations were being made to anticipate forest and land fires (karhutla), including carrying out around 35 Weather Modification Operations (OMC) this year given the potential for early El Nino.
The Minister of Finance, Rohmat Marzuki, was met after the 43rd Rimbawan Service Day Ceremony in Jakarta on Monday, explaining that the Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut) together with the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BKMG), and the private sector to carry out land wetting with OMC.
"For OMC itself, the budget is quite large and must be carried out regularly. So we have made a timeline in this one year we need no less than 35 OMC," said Deputy Minister of Finance Rohmat Marzuki as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, March 16.
He said the OMC schedule was prepared considering that BMKG conveyed the potential for drier and longer droughts this year compared to 2025.
In addition, BMKG also provides warnings related to the occurrence of El Nino which was previously predicted to appear in 2027 is expected to advance in the middle to 2026 with a weak-moderate category.
Regarding the budget, the Minister of Finance explained that for OMC it would be carried out in collaboration with BNPB, but there was also involvement from the private sector, especially the owner of the Forest Utilization Business Permit (PBPH).
Regarding this, the Director General of Law Enforcement (Gakkum) of the Ministry of Finance, Dwi Januanto Nugroho, said that given the long El Nino, the effectiveness of the implementation of OMC can be carried out 10-12 days with sortie or two flights per day. The budget can spend Rp. 2.3-2.5 billion for one operation.
The OMC is carried out for the administrative region of the province, especially those that are usually prone to forest fires.
"One provincial administrative area with a focus on district/city areas where massive forest fires occur," said the Director General of Gakkum, Ministry of Home Affairs, Dwi Januanto Nugroho.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
