BNPB: Indonesia's Dry Season Is Not Without Floods

JAKARTA - The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) noted that the dry season in Indonesia this time was not without hydrometeorological disasters, such as floods and landslides.

Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information and Communication Center Abdul Muhari revealed that this phenomenon occurred even though it had entered the third month of predictions for the dry season.

Once again, the dry season in Indonesia is not a dry season without flooding. The rainy season in Indonesia is not a rainy season without forest and land fires, there are always two of these phenomena that are opposite each other, even occurring in one province," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, August 14.

Spatially, Abdul explained the phenomenon of disaster events on August 7-13, 2023, floods occurred in the districts of the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Aceh, and in North Halmahera.

Currently, he continued, the dominant disaster is indeed forest and land fires and some extreme weather. Although there are still landslides, especially on the island of Java.

Abdul said the dry season prediction would develop. If two months prediction by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the dry season will arrive in August-September, the dynamics of weather predictions will shift slightly between September and October.

Karhutla in Sumatra and Kalimantan, he said, was dominated by peat fires. Meanwhile, forest and land fires in Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, are dominated by mineral lands that dry up very quickly, but the fire extinguishs when the object catches fire in areas that are not near settlements.

Historically, he continued, the most frequent forest and land fires occurred in six provinces, namely Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan.

However, there has been a shift in the trend of forest and land fires dominance in addition to the six provinces. BNPB in this case deployed personnel equipment, as well as support related to contingency and emergency, both land and air task forces, at least 31 helicopters, 14 of which were patrol helicopters, the rest were heliwater bombing.