MP Urges Government to Declare Kalimantan Forest Fires a National Disaster

A member of Commission IV of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), Daniel Johan, has urged the government to immediately declare the forest and land fires (karhutla) in Kalimantan a national disaster as the fires continue to worsen.

He warned that the fires in Kalimantan have nearly paralysed residents’ activities and are disrupting public health and the economy.

“Kalimantan is now like half a ‘hell’ because the forest and land fires are getting worse. The government needs to declare karhutla status in Kalimantan as a national disaster because the impact is very significant,” Daniel said in a written statement on Friday (21/8).

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) previously revealed that the highest concentration of hotspots in Kalimantan was in Central Kalimantan with 767 points, followed by West Kalimantan with 560 points, South Kalimantan and East Kalimantan with 74 points each, and North Kalimantan with 3 points.

The MP from the West Kalimantan electoral district urged the government not to stop at presenting hotspot numbers as monitoring data.

“When hotspots are already concentrated in large numbers in Kalimantan, every hotspot with a high confidence level must immediately be translated into a list of priority locations that must be verified and handled on the ground within hours,” he said.

Daniel highlighted the impact of the fires, which have forced schools to close and caused a spike in acute respiratory infection cases.

“This is certainly a matter of concern because the impact of the fires is increasingly disrupting children’s school activities, such as in Kubu Raya Regency and Pontianak City, which have been forced to close due to poor air quality,” Daniel said.

Daniel urged the government to accelerate the handling of the fires. He also called for the acceleration of weather modification operations through intensive coordination between BNPB, BMKG, and BRIN.

“We urge the government to immediately deploy massive firefighting forces by strengthening water bombing operations, as well as deploying joint ground teams from Manggala Agni, BPBD, and the TNI/Polri focused on fire spots in peatland areas that risk spreading to areas around airports,” he said.

He further highlighted the government’s lack of preparation in anticipating forest and land fires, which are a recurring disaster in Indonesia.

Daniel reminded that the impact of the fires is felt not only domestically but also disrupts neighbouring countries.

“I also question how the government’s mitigation has been carried out, because these forest and land fires are a disaster that occurs every year. Why wait until it becomes large before it is handled seriously,” he said.

Regarding the cause of the fires, Daniel demanded strict law enforcement against the responsible parties, both those who deliberately set fires and those whose negligence caused the fires.

“Do not let the public take matters into their own hands and use customary law or social law because they are too frustrated with land burning actions,” Daniel said.

Daniel also urged the Ministry of Finance to immediately disburse the operational budget for forest and land fire management that has already been allocated from the state budget.

“We urge the Ministry of Finance to immediately disburse a budget of Rp290,901,300,000 (billion) for operational prevention and management of forest and land fires,” he said.

“This budget is very urgent so that firefighting efforts in the field are no longer hampered by limited resources,” Daniel added.