Jambi govt calls for artificial rain

JAMBI. The Jambi administration has said it is struggling to extinguish forest and land fires in the province, arguing that the hotspots are continuing to increase, reaching 175.

Jambi Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) emergency response section head Dalmanto said his staff were finding it difficult to extinguish the fires and added that artificial rain was urgently required.

“The conditions make it difficult to extinguish the fires through overland routes. It’s now time to do so via the air,” he said on Monday.

He said the 175 hotspots were spread throughout nine regencies/municipalities, except Jambi municipality and Kerinci regency. The majority of hot spots, he added, were found in Tebo regency, while the fewest were in Sungai Penuh municipality.

He insisted that artificial rain was necessary considering efforts to extinguish the fires during the last two months had not made the expected impact.

Yet so far, he said, no response had been made by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) regarding the request.

He said all efforts carried out by his agency and related institutions had not been able to extinguish the fires.

“We’re asking for the central government’s help, especially with regard to the artificial rain program,” he said.

A similar call was heard from Jambi Provincial Forestry Agency forest protection and investigation head A. Bastari.

He said his agency had deployed three teams with a total of 45 personnel to extinguish the forest fires in Tahura Tanjung, Kumpeh district, Muaro Jambi, Jambi, with the help of a high-voltage water pump. Still, it had not yet succeeded in extinguishing the fires.

“We have recommended that the BPBD evaluate and then employ artificial rain,” he said.

Jambi Governor Hasan Basri Agus said he had also asked the BNPB to implement artificial rain to deal with the forest fires in Jambi. Again, no response had been received to date.

“Rain has not fallen for a very long time,” he said.

Artificial rain, he said, was important for neutralizing the haze that had been hitting Jambi as well as to extinguish fires that were expanding onto peatlands in Jambi, including in the national park area in Tanjung subdistrict, Kumpeh district, Muaro Jambi.

Meanwhile in Riau, forest and land fires in neighboring Riau province covered an area of 14,837 hectares, with Bengkalis and Meranti the worst hit regencies.

Of them, 11,808 hectares had been extinguished.

Riau haze disaster mitigation taskforce commander Brig. Gen. Prihadi Agus Irianto said of the current forest and land fires, only the ones in a 1,295 hectare area had produced thick haze.

Of them, he said, 1,077 hectares were located in the biosphere preserve area in Bengkalis regency.

Strong winds had carried the haze as far as Pekanbaru, the provincial capital. The rest, he said, had only produced thin haze.

“All, however, have been the target of our fire fighting operation,” said Prihadi, who is also commander of the Wira Bima Military Resort Command.

Separately, the Pekanbaru branch of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicted that rain would not likely fall within the next three days as air humidity in the region was still low.

“This means that the potential for more land fires in Riau is still relatively high,” said the head of the branch, Sugarin. (Jon Afrizal and Rizal Harahap)