SBO, OKU— The Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU) Regency Government, South Sumatra, is prepared to face the dry season which has the potential to cause forest and land fires (karhutla) in the area.
Manager of Pusdalops Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) OKU Gunalfi in Baturaja Friday said that facing the dry season this year his party had declared forest and land fire alert status.
He explained that the OKU Regent’s Decree (SK) regarding preparedness for the haze disaster due to illegal forest burning by irresponsible community elements was issued to minimize forest and land fire incidents in the area.
“The forest and land fire alert decree has been issued to deal with potential forest fires during the dry season,” he said.
In determining the alert status, his party reactivated the main post at the OKU BPBD Office so that forest and land fire incidents could be handled as early as possible.
Apart from that, the OKU District Government also formed a task force at district to village level with hundreds of personnel and a team of volunteers to care about fire on standby.
“So far, hot spots or hotspots have not been found because in OKU Regency it is still the wet dry season,” he said.
Based on the mapping results, he said, in OKU Regency there are seven sub-districts that have been mapped as areas prone to forest and land fires.
The seven sub-districts include Ulu Ogan, Pengandonan, Muara Jaya, Semidang Aji, Lengkiti, Sosoh Buay Terap and Lubuk Batang sub-districts.
These areas are mapped as being prone to forest and land fires because there is still a lot of agricultural land and plantations owned by the community that can easily catch fire during the long dry season.
