Five provinces have declared an emergency alert status for haze due to forest and land fires in 2022
The head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Lt. Gen. Suharyanto, stated that the Indonesian government has begun to anticipate the potential for forest and land fires (karhutla).
BNPB noted that as of Wednesday (27/7/2022), 131 forest and land fires had occurred since the beginning of 2022.
"Although disasters in Indonesia are still dominated by wet hydrometeorological events, we urge local governments to remain alert and aware of the potential for forest and land fires," said Suharyanto in a statement, Friday (29/7/2022).
BNPB has prepared several support measures for forest and land fire control. As a prevention effort, BNPB has established a Karhutla Disaster Resilient Village and conducted education to the public regarding forest and land fire mitigation.
In addition, BNPB also encourages local governments to carry out long-term vegetation-based mitigation.
When a forest and land fire emergency response status is established in an area, BNPB will provide air operations assistance. This assistance is in the form of helicopter support for firefighting and patrol operations.
As of Thursday (28/7/2022), there were five provinces that had set an emergency alert status for the haze due to forest and land fires in 2022. The five provinces are Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, South Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan.
"The determination of this disaster emergency alert status is the basis for our emergency handling in the field. As long as the regions have not determined this status, we cannot reduce helicopter assistance," said Suharyanto. (bnpb, between)
