Air Pollution Index in East Kotawaringin Translucent 100, Regent Will Have Emergency Response Status Meeting

Karhutla di Desa Palangan Kecamatan Kota Besi, Kotawaringin Timur, Kalteng pada 3 Agustus 2023. (ANTARA)

KALTENG - Kotawaringin Timur Regent Halikinnor revealed that the air pollutant index (ISPU) for East Kotawaringin in Central Kalimantan (Kalteng) exceeds 100 which means it is in the unhealthy category.

He admitted that forest and land fires or karhutla were the source of the ISPU in East Kotawaringin because the dry season is now very dry, triggering the rapid spread of fires.

"We will immediately hold an evaluation meeting regarding the current conditions. If necessary, an emergency response status will be set so that the handling of forest and land fires can be carried out more optimally," he said in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Friday, August 18, reported by Antara.

Karhutla in East Kotawaringin includes the Baamang and Mentawa Baru Ketapang sub-districts. Karhutla events start sporadically or at many points.

The extinguishing was not only done from land, but also using water bombing from the air by helicopters belonging to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

He hopes that the East Kotawaringin karhutla will not cause haze whose impact will disrupt the entire community, both in terms of health, education, economy, and others.

Apart from not burning the land, Halikinnor also asked the community to help extinguish the fire if there was a forest fire in the area around it. The goal is to prevent the fire from spreading so that it can be quickly extinguished when officers arrive.

"If a fire starts to appear, whoever is nearby can see it, please extinguish it as soon as possible so it doesn't spread. If you let it go, the consequences will be severe. If it gets wider it will be difficult to control it," he said.

Halikinnor again reminded the public that part of the land in East Kotawaringin is peat. During a dry season like now, the peat becomes dry, so it catches fire easily and is difficult to extinguish because the fire continues to burn into the ground even though it appears to be extinguished on the surface.

Efforts to extinguish fires on peatlands must be carried out repeatedly until the fire in the ground is completely extinguished. In fact, at this time the water source is also starting to dry up so that officers often find it difficult to put out the fire.

"Hopefully we can put out the fires together with our efforts and there will be no more new fires so that even though it's hot, even though it's dry, we don't experience the smog disaster like some time ago," he stated.