R

iau and Jambi, the two provinces in Sumatra that are traditionally worst hit by annual haze caused by forest and land fires, are taking steps to anticipate the potential worsening of the situation due to increasing hotspots.

The Riau administration has reopened the Haze Disaster Response Task Force command post at the Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase in Pekanbaru as part of its efforts to prepare for and combat future haze.

Riau Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Said Saqlul Amri said every party had to react quickly in responding to the smallest fire, as the heat during the dry season raised the risk of major fires, which would be difficult to tackle.

'€œThe command station aims to coordinate between relevant agencies, regency and city administrations and private-sector entities, as well as to unify command on the deployment of firefighters,'€ he said on Tuesday.

According to Said, firefighting agendas would be discussed at the command post during morning briefing each day, while report evaluations from all firefighting operational zones and subsequent firefighting locations would be examined daily at 5 p.m.

The administration has set aside Rp 10 billion (US$833,868) to support the firefighting operations.

Heading an initial meeting on Tuesday morning, the Riau administration'€™s second assistant, Wan Amir, said the governor had appointed his deputy, Arsyadjuliandi Rachman, to be head of the Haze Disaster Response Task Force.

Meanwhile, the person responsible for aerial operations at Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase, commander Col. M. Khairil Lubis, said three helicopters and a patrol helicopter had been put on standby to support water bombing operations at blaze locations.

Khairil said an Indonesian Military (TNI) Air Force Hercules plane had also been prepared to carry out weather-modification sorties, such as cloud seeding to make rain.

Based on images from the Terra and Aqua satellites, the number of hotspots in Riau as of Tuesday morning stood at 97. Despite a drastic drop from the 236 hotspots discovered just the previous day, the hotspots have expanded to 10 of Riau'€™s 12 regencies and cities. Previously, only eight regencies and cities were detected with hotspots.

'€œRokan Hilir, Bengkalis and Pelalawan regencies and Dumai city have been detected as having the highest number of hotspots. '€œThat'€™s why water bombing has been focused there,'€ he said.

Separately, Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI Warsi) spokesman Rudy Syaf said on Tuesday that the El Niño phenomenon, which is predicted to occur from July to October this year, had prompted Jambi province to gear up its efforts in combating forest and peatland fires and resulting haze.

According to Rudy, peatland fires would most likely occur during an El Niño because, based on KKI Warsi observations, the peatland in Riau and Jambi was already dry, making it highly combustible. The utilization of peatland by plantation companies is one factor contributing to its dryness.

Rudy said the impact of the El Niño '€” if it came '€” would be worse this year compared to 1996, given the current condition of the peatland. The government and plantation companies should have carried out anticipatory measures as, so far, firefighters had only been deployed if and when a fire began, he added.