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The Indonesian government has deployed more than 54,000 personnel and 64 aircraft to tackle forest and land fires across several parts of the country since August
"From the air to the ground, all available resources continue to be deployed. Every effort is being made to extinguish the fires, mitigate the impacts of smoke, and most importantly, protect communities from the threat of forest and land fires," Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in an official post on Sunday, 20 September.
According to ANTARA News, Teddy said the extensive areas affected by the fires, along with challenging peatland conditions, have made firefighting efforts more difficult.
Nevertheless, he said the government would continue working to contain the fires and minimise their impact.
Of the 64 aircraft deployed, 55 are from Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), while nine are from the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI)
Teddy said the aircraft are continuously carrying out water-bombing operations to help extinguish the fires.
The 54,394 personnel involved in the operations include members of the BNPB, TNI, Indonesian National Police, Ministry of Forestry, Regional Disaster Mitigation Agencies, Manggala Agni firefighting units, volunteers, and local residents.
The personnel have been deployed across several priority areas:
– 14,759 in West Kalimantan
– 14,382 in Riau and the Riau Islands
– 11,026 in South Sumatra
– 5,984 in Jambi
– 4,686 in Central Kalimantan
– 3,557 in South Kalimantan
Indonesia has been experiencing forest and land fires in several regions as the country faces an increasingly intense dry season amid the El Niño phenomenon
The government has identified six provinces as priority areas for firefighting efforts: Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Riau, South Sumatra, and Jambi.
According to Indonesia's SiPongi monitoring system, 688 high-confidence hotspots were detected nationwide as of yesterday, 21 September. The Ministry of Forestry described this as a positive development, as the figure marks a significant decrease from the 1,532 hotspots recorded on Saturday, 19 September.
