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Govt holds closed meeting for Sumatran fires
(Tribunsumsel/M
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(Tribunsumsel/M.A.Fajr) (Tribunsumsel/M.A.Fajr)
(Tribunsumsel/M.A.Fajr)
Amid ongoing forest and land fires in Sumatra, the government held a closed meeting on Saturday led by the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said.
'The President has asked us to act quick, not just regarding the current issue, but also [to devise] a long-term plan to prevent it from happening again,' said Sudirman in his opening remarks at the meeting as quoted by tempo.co.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry's secretary general Bambang Hendroyono, the National Police chief Badrodin Haiti, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo and the regional representatives from South Sumatra, Jambi and Riau were among those in attendance at the meeting held at the Environment and Forestry Ministry's Manggala Wanabakti building in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
Sudirman said that other regencies had made requests to build coordination posts (posko) such as the one in Riau considered useful in lessening the impact of disasters.
According to a report by Antara news agency, six morning flights from Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air were delayed at the Syamsudin Noor Airport in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Saturday due to thick smoke.
'Six flights had been delayed for almost two hours due to low visibility,' said state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I's general manager for the Syamsudin Noor Airport Handy Heryudhitiawan.
Handy said that visibility at the airport was only around 300 meters at 6 a.m. and later decreased to 200 meters at 7 a.m. Normal visibility is 800 meters.
'At 8 a.m., visibility increased to 700 meters and later reached 2000 meters at 9 a.m., allowing the delayed flights to depart,' said Handy.
According to Handy, it was the third time the airport has had flight delays since August due to the thick smoke.
On Friday, most regions of Sumatra were blanketed by smoke.
According to data from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites, there were up to 362 hot spots in Sumatra at 5 a.m. on Friday. Most of them were located in South Sumatra, where there were 173 hot spots, followed by Jambi with 148, Riau with 31 and Bangka Belitung with 8. (kes)(++++)
