Govt Negligence in Forest Fire Prevention

The government\'s negligence in forest fire prevention efforts during the prolonged dry season this year has caused haze to spread to neighboring countries.

KOMPAS/EMANUEL EDI SAPUTRA

Thick haze from forest and peatland fires blankets Pontianak city, West Kalimantan, on Monday (16/9/2019). Thick haze has raised the Air Quality Index for the city to the highest level, Hazardous.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The haze produced by forest and peatland fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan continues to worsen and to threaten human health. Peatland fires are raging out of control due to minimal prevention efforts in anticipating the long dry season predicted this year.

Forest and peatland fires are occurring in the six provinces of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BNPB) data shows that 328,724 hectares were affected by wildfires in January-August 2019 reaching. Meanwhile, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has detected more than 25,000 hotspots across all regions of Indonesia in the last 10 days.