T

he government has set up a '€œhaze emergency'€ task force as the pollution from forest fires in some parts of the country has sent air quality down to its lowest level in many months, putting millions of people at great risk of suffering health problems.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry, as the main coordinator of the national task force, convened its first meeting on Saturday to discuss the technical details of the task force, which will involve the National Police and the Indonesian Army (TNI), as well as the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPT).

'€œThere will be a decree signed by the Environment and Forestry Minister [for the establishment of the task force],'€ the ministry'€™s secretary-general, Bambang Hendroyono, said. '€œThe decree will be issued on Monday.'€

The task force will conduct a '€œhaze emergency'€ operation at the national level to support soon-to-be-established task forces on regional levels, with the respective governors acting as coordinators.

Also present during the meeting were governors from provinces affected by recurring forest fires: Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, Central Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.

While each province has attempted to prevent forest fires and extinguish them, the efforts have been hampered by a lack of financial support and coordination with the central government, something that the task force aims to rectify, according to Bambang.

At the initial stage, the Transportation Ministry had given permission to fly to more than 20 airplanes and helicopters, he said.

'€œIn the past, the effort [to extinguish the forest fires from the air] had been slow because the helicopters [used for water bombing] could not fly [because they lacked permission]. They were stuck for almost five days,'€ Bambang said. '€œNow, the permission can easily be granted, including one for an Air Tractor from Australia that we rented. It'€™s already in Riau.'€

He said the task force would prioritize the usage of existing technology, such as cloud seeding projects. '€œWe will make fire extinguishing from the ground more effective and focus on regencies prone to forest fires,'€ Bambang said.

The task force would also make greater use of existing monitoring posts, which were established last year, he said.

'€œSo the posts will monitor from early morning where the hot spots are in order to determine which regencies are to be prioritized,'€ said Bambang. '€œThe result of the monitoring will be reported to governors in the evening to be followed up the day after. The monitoring posts will work 24 hours and have links to a command center at the ministry.'€

The chairman of the National Body for Disaster Management (BNPB), Syamsul Maarif, said on Friday the President, among others, had called for establishing more monitoring posts in a number of places in Sumatra and Kalimantan to help the firefighters do their jobs more effectively.

Syamsul said four posts will be established in Sumatra and another four will be established in Kalimantan.

The task force would deploy more human resources to regions in order to monitor forest fires,
Bambang said.

He added the task force would not have to deal with budget constraints as both regional and national disaster mitigation agencies had committed to provide as much financial support as was needed. '€œThis meeting asked the governors as the ones in charge of the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency [BPPD] to work in coordination with the BNPT so that there are no more budget problems,'€ said Bambang.

Syamsul said the number of hot spots had gone down in Riau and Jambi on Friday, but had increased in South Sumatra.

A US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite operated by Singapore detected a total of 184 hot spots in the five provinces as of Thursday, while the Modis Terra Aqua satellites detected 689 hot spots.

However, analysts have predicted the number of hot spots could grow as climate experts warned this year'€™s El Niño is very likely to match the intensity of the record-breaking weather phenomenon in 1997, which induced a prolonged drought and widespread fires in Indonesia.
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