Palembang – South Sumatra (Sumsel) Regional Disasters Mitigation Board (BPBD) has reported that the forest and land fires (Karhutla) in the province dropped by 70 percent during 2020 as the dry season during the year is wetter than that of 2019.

“In terms of hotspots, the province only saw 4,232 hotspots during this year as compared to 17,024 hotspots last year. That means the Karhutla in Sumsel dropped by 70 percent,” Sumsel BPBD Emergency Response Division Head  Ansori said last week.

Ansori said that during the period of 1 January 2020 until 3 November 2020 there had been only 268 hectares of forests and lands engulfed by fires, which are mostly in Banyuasin regency (103 hectares), and followed by Ogan Ilir (97.4 hectares). In 2019 the fires affected a total of 328,457 hectares of forests and lands in the province.

The decrease of Karhutla in Sumsel is also resulted from the provincial government step to apply the status of fire emergency alert in the province since early this year, and the public awareness not to open lands by burning.

“Although still two months to go before the end of this year, chances are small that more Karhutla cases will occur as Sumsel has been entering the rainy season that will last until March 2021,” he noted.

Ansori pointed out that the provincial fire task force (Satgas), which include team members from the regional police and regional military, had been withdrawn from the field assignment. But Satgas of regencies/mayoralties are still mobilized on alert in the local office buildings of BPBD.

“Currently, as it is rainy season, we’re focusing on our efforts to deal with natural disasters, such as flood and landslide. Yesterday, all of local government institutions led by Sumsel governor conducted a gathering of alertness to anticipate natural disasters,” he said. (*)

Source: medcom.id | Image via wowkeren.com