Government appoints ministers to handle forest and land fires by region

Jakarta (ANTARA) - State Secretary Minister (Mensesneg) Prasetyo Hadi said the central government has appointed several minister-level officials to handle forest and land fires (karhutla), divided by region.

Speaking at the wedding ceremony of President Prabowo Subianto’s Personal Secretary Chief, Rizky Irmansyah, at JCC, Senayan, Jakarta, on Sunday, the State Secretary said all parties have been asked to assist in handling karhutla in several regions in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

“The central government has appointed several minister-level officials for us to share regions. So, there are those we have assigned tasks for attention in West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and so on,” said Prasetyo.

Some of the appointed officials include several coordinating ministers and the Chief of Staff of the Army.

The division itself, he said, was carried out to ensure the acceleration of karhutla handling and does not mean that the minister-level officials are only responsible for certain regions.

He said the government continues to strive as quickly as possible to handle karhutla. Currently, the focus of handling is carried out in six priority provinces prone to karhutla, namely Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan.

However, the government has no plans to form a task force (satgas) to handle karhutla at this time. Prasetyo said the results of cross-sector coordination have been strongly established.

“I think not yet. Because yesterday the results from the field, the handling and cross-sector coordination are already quite strong. Then if there is a need for additional equipment including helicopters for water bombing, PPE, and additional troops, all have been done,” he explained.

The government has previously been increasing efforts to control and handle karhutla in Kalimantan and Sumatra by deploying 12,880 personnel for firefighting efforts, weather modification operations (OMC), and air quality monitoring.

President Prabowo Subianto has also led a meeting on karhutla handling in Kalimantan, including coordinating with several ministers of the Red and White Cabinet in Central Kalimantan on Saturday (22/8).

One of the directives given was to provide additional equipment and supporting facilities for firefighting, including four water-bombing helicopters, 100 water pumps, 2,000 units of PPE, gepyok hoes, drilled wells, and water hoses.