TEMPO.CO, Bogor - The Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya launched a forest and land fire information system through an SMS (short message service).

“This is necessary to be done, seeing the increased use of smartphones in the community,” she said in Manggala Wanabakti, Wednesday, July 4.

In addition, Siti said, the information system is expected to provide education for the community to prevent forest fires. It is created in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Informatics.

The information on the number of hotspots and fire spots directly can be accessed via sipongi.menklhk.go.id. Siti said that the system was made in coincide with the implementation of the 2018 Asian Games.

Read: Police Investigates 13 Cases of Forest Fires in Riau

Therefore, people in Riau and Jambi can report the hotspots immediately, if there is a forest fire. “Through the [forest fire] SMS [service], Indonesia is expected to be able to control the forest fires,” said Siti.

Minister of Communications and Informatics Rudiantara provide the SMS service for free. "We only provide the access; the content is managed by the [environment] minister,” he said.

The forest fire SMS service will be served by six network operators in Indonesia, namely Telkom, Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo, XL Axiata, Hutchison 3 Indonesia and Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia.

CHITRA PARAMAESTI