Prabowo instructs that forest fire affected areas must not expand

President Prabowo Subianto has instructed all stakeholders to make every effort to extinguish fires upon discovering hotspots and to ensure that forest and land fire (karhutla) areas do not expand.

While leading a coordination meeting on forest and land fire handling for the Sumatra region in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Monday, President Prabowo confirmed that monitoring of hotspots and fire spots continues, including from the air using aircraft and drones.

“Make every effort so that as soon as we know, we immediately send a team to suppress it. Do not let it, do not let it spread into hectares,” said the President.

Specifically for the South Sumatra region, the President also received a report that the forest and land fire situation there is under control, with around 199 hectares still being extinguished.

The Head of State expressed appreciation for the efforts made by relevant parties which began several months ago.

The President also said he would find a solution regarding the handling of the haze that is still occurring, including in Palembang.

“Good, in that case, I think South Sumatra is in a controlled state. It is just the problem of smoke because the position was at its lowest earlier,” said Prabowo.

The development of an alternative liquid which he called “ubi bombing” is hoped to assist firefighting efforts that have so far been carried out traditionally using water.

Prabowo requested that the innovation made from cassava or singkong be developed immediately and tested on a larger scale.

The Head of State also requested that the production budget requirements be submitted immediately so that the government can support the research, production, and effectiveness testing process.

“Very interesting. The raw material is from ubi, from singkong. Try producing it on a large scale. Submit the cost for its production. We will make every effort. So it means we are not water bombing, but ubi bombing. Ubi bombing,” said the Head of State.

In addition to handling forest and land fires in South Sumatra, on that occasion the President also held online coordination meetings with regional government officials in Jambi and Lampung regarding forest and land fire handling in their respective regions.

Earlier, on Monday morning, Prabowo arrived in Pekanbaru, Riau, to lead a similar meeting regarding forest and land fire handling in that region.