REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PANGKALPINANG -- The Pangkalpinang station of Indonesia's Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) revealed an increase in the number of hotspots detected by the Terra and Aqua Satellites in Bangka Belitung (Babel) from two to 14.
"The increase in the number of hotspots is due to the forest and land fires, which are mostly set deliberately by the community, including those for conducting land clearing activities," Staff Coordinator of the BMKG Pangkalpinang Analysis Unit Deas Achmad Rivai stated here on Thursday.
Most of the hotspots are located in South Bangka district where nine spots were recorded.
"The hotspots are spread across two sub-districts. Three of them are in Toboali sub-district, and six more are in the Payung sub-district," he noted.
The rest of the hotspots are located in Central Bangka district, and as many as three were detected in Koba sub-district.
"One hotspot each was detected in the districts of Belitung and East Belitung. The hotspots are spread in Membalong and Kelapa Kampit sub-districts," he reported.
According to Rivai, Babel is currently receiving relatively low rainfall, with humidity reaching 95 percent, thereby resulting in large areas of land being affected by drought.
"Dry land is prone to fire incidents if not careful. This is especially true when community members continue to exhibit irresponsible behavior by setting fire to land areas," he pointed out.
Speaking in connection with the current dry conditions, he also appealed to the people to not set fires, especially during the hot windy weather.
In the meantime, the number of hotspots in Indonesia has, in general, decreased significantly over the last few days.
Rains received in the past couple of days have improved the air quality and visibility in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Moreover, the BNPB had seeded 284.9 tons 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.
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