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)