Mahfud Md: Hotspots Increasing in Several Areas

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Mahfud Md said that fires in a number of areas were increasing. The situation, he said, is worse than last year.

"There has been an increase in hotspots, forest and land fires, and they are higher than in previous years. If you look at El Nino, compared to last year, this year is still smaller and more controlled, the BMKG chief reported earlier," Mahfud said after attending a coordination meeting for handling forest and land fires with BMKG and BNPB at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Monday, October 9.

Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), previously said that the agency had implemented a Weather Modification Technology (TMC) scheme to reduce the number of hotspots.

"Since February, there have been efforts to wet peatlands, carrying out TMC hundreds of times on lands that are predicted to burn, because the main water level will fall when the dry season occurs," Dwikorita said.

Dwikorita also said that to this day the weather modification scheme is still being implemented until the end of October and early November. The BMKG had been expecting some rain this month, but so far there have been no clouds.

Even though weather modifications have been carried out, Dwikorita said that forest and land fires still occur. In some cases, she said, the fires are caused by human activities.

YUNI ROHMAWATI

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