"The number of hotspots has decreased significantly," a spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said here on Saturday.
According to him, the Terra and Aqua satellites on Saturday (October 31) detected 402 hotspots in the country.
"The number of hotspots has dropped to 402 from 2,218 last Saturday," he said.
In addition, thanks to the rain in the past couple of days, the air quality and visibility became better in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
"The visibility in Padang, West Sumatra was 4 kilometers while it was 7 kilometers in Pekanbaru, 2.8 kilometers in Jambi, 800 meters in Palembang, 2 kilometers in Pontianak, 1.5 kilometers in Palangkaraya and 6 kilometers in Banjarmasin," he said.
Meanwhile, the BNPB has seeded 284.9 tonnes of salt (NaCL) in the skies above Sumatra and Kalimantan islands to produce artificial rain as part of the efforts to extinguish forest and land fires in the two regions.
"According to the prediction of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the rain intensity had increased between Oct 26 and 31 in Sumatra and Kalimantan," he said.
To ensure even heavier rain, he noted, the government has intensified the operation to induce artificial rain.
Earlier, President Joko Widodo inspected a blocking canal development project in Pulang Pisau Saturday, which is intended to prevent peat land fires in the district.
President Jokowi, as he is also known, and his entourage arrived at the location at around 2 pm after flying in from Jambi, Sumatra, to inspect the handling and impact of forest and land fires in the region.
"A month ago, we had come here and the peat lands were on fire. There used to be no water, so peat lands were easy to burn. Now we have a blocking canal network. This will go right till the Kahiyang River. There will always be water here, infiltrating the peat lands on the left and right sides. This is what will prevent the fire from burning the peat land," he said.
Jokowi entered the peat lands that had been burned, and was accompanied by Forestry and Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya, coordinating ministers Luhut Panjaitan and Puan Maharani and Public Works Minister Basuki Hadimoeljono.
"The work has been carried out for a month. The canal and blocks can already be seen. Later, we will make a similar arrangement at all locations vulnerable to fire," he said.
The project would continue in all provinces in the country to minimize forest and peat land fires, he said.
"The first step is to build canals (to overcome the fire problem). The second one is prevention. So whenever a fire is detected in a district, it is the district that will put it out quickly. But if it has spread to five to ten locations, then it will be the provincial government that must extinguish them. It is the responsibility of the autonomous regions. Only after fires spread and are difficult to overcome will the central government take over," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2015
