MAKASSAR, SOUTH SULAWESI — Dompet Dhuafa through the Disaster Management Center (DMC) and Sekolah Guru Indonesia (SGI) from the Institute for Human Development (LPI), held a disaster preparedness training for forest and land fires (karhutla).
The training was held for two days in two different locations, namely Makassar City Museum, Baru Village, Ujung Pandang District on Sunday (10/9/2023) and in Panaikang Village, Panakkukang District on Monday (11/9/2023). A total of 30 participants consisting of teachers were given material in the form of health emergency first aid, fire fighting and countermeasures, to emergency response during forest and land fires.
It is known, based on a risk assessment conducted by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) in 2021, South Sulawesi has a risk of forest and land fires. The total area of forest and land fire hazard in South Sulawesi Province as a whole is 3,101,241 Ha and is in the high class.
North Luwu district has the highest area of land and forest fire hazard in the low class, at 275,834 ha. Selayar Islands district has the highest area of moderate hazard, at 631,612 hectares, and high hazard, at 128,255 hectares.
Then the vulnerability assessment data in South Sulawesi recorded quite large numbers. Vulnerability assessment data for forest and land fires in South Sulawesi is obtained from the potential exposed population and vulnerable groups as well as potential losses, both physical, economic, and environmental damage.
The potential number of exposed populations and potential losses were analyzed and then displayed in the form of vulnerability classes for forest and land fires. The total loss for forest and land fire disaster is 14.452 trillion rupiah. North Toraja District, which amounted to 1.789 trillion rupiah and the smallest economic loss was Bulukumba District, which amounted to 74.329 billion rupiah.
Of the 23 districts/cities at risk of forest and land fires, Selayar Islands and Tana Toraja districts have a high risk class. Bulukumba district is classified as a low risk class. Meanwhile, other districts/cities are in the medium disaster risk class. This condition makes the risk class of forest and land fires in South Sulawesi high.
Based on Global Forest Watch monitoring, when compared to last year, the peak of fires for the South Sulawesi region occurred in October. This monitoring can be seen starting the occurrence of forest and land fires in the South Sulawesi region.
On Sunday (27/8/2023) a fire consumed 2 hectares of community plantation land in Bacukiki Subdistrict, Parepare City, South Sulawesi. Then on Tuesday (12/9/2023), there was a forest fire in the Protected Forest Area in Tala-tala Hamlet, Bontomanai Village, Tompobulu District, Maros Regency. Then on Thursday (14/09/2023), 8 hectares of land at the foot of Mount Sewo, Soppeng Regency, South Sulawesi caught fire.
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Seeing the reality above, DMC and SGI hope that through this training the participants gathered in Makassar will be able to become volunteers to fight forest and land fires throughout South Sulawesi Province.
“The fire rate is high and the drought rate is equally high,” said Sanadi, DMC Dompet Dhuafa’s Humanitarian Academy Staff through a short message.
On the other hand, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicts that the beginning of the rainy season will generally occur in November 2023. This brings hope to people who are vulnerable to forest and land fires in Indonesia.
In November 2023, about 255 ZOMs (36.5%) will enter the rainy season, including South Sumatra, Lampung, most of Banten, Jakarta, West Java, most of Central Java, some of East Java, Bali, a small part of NTB, a small part of NTT, North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, some of Central Sulawesi, most of South Sulawesi, northern North Maluku, and southern South Papua.
“In general, the rainy season is predicted to come later, which occurs in about 446 ZOMs (63.8%) throughout Indonesia. Some 22 ZOMs (3.2%) are predicted to experience an early or advanced start of the rainy season. And, there are also around 56 ZOMs or around 8.0% of Indonesian territory that are predicted to experience the same start of the rainy season as the climatological average,” explained BMKG Head Dwikorita Karnawati as quoted from the BMKG official website, Friday (8/9/2023). (Dompet Dhuafa/DMC/AFP)