Budgeted Rp53 Billion To Alert 10,654 Personnel, Central Kalimantan Provincial Government Is Ready To Face Forest And Land Fires

Illustration of fighting forest and land fires or forest and land fires. (Between)

KALTENG - The Provincial Government (Pemrov) of Central Kalimantan (Kalteng) ensures the readiness of the strategy to the availability of an adequate budget in anticipating and dealing with forest and land fires (karhutla).

"In this case, the Central Kalimantan Provincial Government has prepared eight important steps and most of them have been implemented," said Central Kalimantan Deputy Governor Edy Pratowo in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Sunday, July 31.

He explained, firstly, starting from providing the budget through the Central Kalimantan APBD, both purely and the Reforestation Fund Revenue Sharing Fund (DBH DR), to Unexpected Expenditures, and others.

As for budget readiness, the DBH-DR allocation for controlling forest and land fires in 2022 is IDR 53 billion, used for prevention, suppression, and post-karhutla handling by the task force involving the Fire Care Community and spending on infrastructure.

"The provincial government has also reserved a BTT budget of Rp250 billion, one of which is for emergency handling of the forest and land fires disaster if it occurs," he explained, according to Antara.

He explained that the readiness and steps that have been taken by Central Kalimantan had previously been submitted to the central government in the Coordination Meeting for Combating Karhutla 2022 in Jakarta recently.

Furthermore, secondly, Central Kalimantan also ensures the readiness of personnel consisting of various agencies and other related parties, which is around 10,654 people.

Third, the readiness of equipment for handling forest and land fires, and fourth, the activation of command posts and field posts of the Central Kalimantan forest and land fire control task force at 19 priority locations whose funding source is from DBH DR.

"Fifth, the implementation of patrols for prevention and early extinguishing of forest and land fires by the KPH Forest Fire Control Brigade, Manggala Agni, TRC BPBD, supported by the TNI and Polri," he explained.

Sixth, the determination of the Karhutla Disaster Emergency Alert Status in the Central Kalimantan region in 2022, planned to start in August 2022, the seventh, the activation of the fire and forest fire emergency response post as a follow-up to the status determination later, until the eighth request for 'water bombing' helicopter support and Weather Modification Technology (TMC) to BNPB.

If an air-fighting operation using patrol helicopters and water-bombing helicopters is required, the initial planning that his party has compiled requires nine water-bombing helicopters and two patrol helicopters.

"Those will be placed at three airports, including Tjilik Riwut Airport, Palangka Raya, H. Asan Sampit Airport and Iskandar Pangkalan Bun Airport," he said.