Govt to go all out in fight against forest fires
Govt to go all out in fight against forest fires
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry and Plantations Sumahadi
vowed yesterday to do his best to tackle the prolonged forest
fires in East Kalimantan despite his ministry's limited budget
and equipment.
The minister acknowledged shortages of sophisticated
equipment, including water bombers, had slowed efforts to tame
the fires.
"Up to now we are trying to extinguish the fires by using
simple equipment and by employing as many people as possible to
put out the fires. Of course this is rather difficult," Sumahadi
said after meeting with President Soeharto at his private
residence on Jl. Cendana, Central Jakarta.
More than 127,000 hectares of forest, plantations and farmland
-- 40 percent of which is owned by timber companies -- have been
burned in the last three months. Losses from the fires exceed Rp
2.2 trillion (US$220 million).
The head of the East Kalimantan Environmental Impact
Management Agency, Awang Faroek, said Sunday that about 300
people were employed daily to fight the fires on the ground. The
government had also deployed two water bombers to spray water
from the air.
Faroek said he expected the central government to accelerate
efforts to combat the fires because at least 5,000 people in the
province were suffering from smog-related diseases, including
3,400 people experiencing respiratory problems.
"We will also send fire fighters from other provinces to East
Kalimantan next month to enable us work day and night," said
Sumahadi.
Haze caused by the forest fires in East Kalimantan has yet to
affect the flow of the foreign tourists, an official was quoted
by Antara as saying in the provincial capital Samarinda
yesterday.
The head of the provincial office of the ministry of tourism,
arts and culture, Ibnu Darmawan, said there had not been any
reports of trip cancellations from any of the 80-odd travel
agencies in the province.
However, the director of a local travel agency PT Hopes Travel
Balikpapan, Antoni Tambunan, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that
his company had canceled at least five trips due to the forest
fires.
"If there are 10 people on each package tour, this means some
50 foreign tourists have canceled their trips over the past three
months," Antoni said.
He estimated hundreds of foreign tourists had canceled their
trips to the province in the last few months.
Ibnu was quoted by Antara as saying that 42,817 foreign
tourists visited the province last year. (byg/prb)