Forest fires may be over but other threats to come: Minister
Forest fires may be over but other threats to come: Minister
JAKARTA (JP): Several days of rain may be a breath of fresh
air for many Indonesians, but State Minister of Environment
Sarwono Kusumaatmadja warned yesterday of imminent problems left
by the severe drought.
Sarwono identified the threats as a disrupted planting season,
crop failure and an outbreak of disease. He urged the public to
be aware of such dangers.
"These threats are imminent in Kalimantan and Sumatra which
were badly affected by the recent forest fires and haze," he told
reporters at his office.
He said farmers in those areas would have difficulties finding
seeds for this year's planting season. He said farmers in
Kalimantan and Sumatra had been forced to eat seeds due to food
shortages.
The Ministry of Agriculture should help supply seeds -- whose
prices have also soared -- to the affected areas, he said.
This year's severe drought has also changed the nature of soil
in many farming areas, he said, adding that this must be
addressed properly.
He also warned against possible erosion, flooding, and
outbreaks of disease such as typhus, dysentery, and dengue which
would cause widespread public health problems unless well-
managed.
"People in the areas badly affected by haze will be more
vulnerable to disease as their resistance is lowered," Sarwono
said.
Sarwono said it would take the government at least three
months to calculate the financial losses caused by forest fires
and the haze pollution.
"It's not an easy job, it needs a lot of data study, analysis,
and interpretation," he said. "And we must have the same
perception of what constituted the losses."
However, when asked to compare the financial losses caused by
this year's forest fires with those in 1982-1983, which destroyed
3.7 million hectares of land and forest, Sarwono said: "It's
bigger."
He said he would ask the office of the Coordinating Minister
for Production and Distribution to perform a "loss assessment".
"This economic data will be able to show the people how costly
a practice it is opening land by burning trees ... so that we can
learn a good lesson from it," Sarwono said.
Concerning the latest development, Sarwono said: "There are no
more hot spots and the haze has gone ... although in East
Kalimantan some peat ember still persists."
He said the government had considered lifting the country's
state of national disaster, which was declared last September,
following the diminishing of fires and haze.
He said it was time to address the imminent threats of the
post-fire period and the famine threatening 90,000 tribespeople
in the country's easternmost province of Irian Jaya.
At least 522 people have died since last August in the
province's regencies of Jayawijaya, Merauke and Puncak Jaya.
(aan)