REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PALEMBANG -- South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin here, Wednesday, pledged to make all-out efforts to prevent forest and land fires from occurring in his province. Noerdin expressed hope that no smog would engulf the province prior to the arrival of foreign guests to Palembang which will co-host the 2018 Asian Games along with Jakarta.

"We have remain committed to preventing South Sumatra from being gutted by forest and land fires as was witnessed in 2015 since thousands of foreign guests will arrive to attend the multi-sports events of this year's Asian Games," he stated to local journalists here a day after attending the National Coordination Meeting on Forest and Land Fire Control in 2018 at the State Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday, 

The 18th Asian Games will be organized from Aug 18 to Sept 2 at the Bung Karno Sports Arena of Jakarta and Jakabaring Sport City of Palembang in South Sumatra Province. According to Noerdin, the provincial government and related parties had vowed to prevent the recurrence of forest and land fires that had ravaged South Sumatra in 2015 by establishing a land and forest fire task force.

The 2015 forest and land fire disaster was an important learning experience for South Sumatra, as thousands of hectares of land was destroyed, he noted, adding that the task force's presence had helped reduce the incidents of forest and land fires in 2016 and 2017.

Due to its performance, the South Sumatra-based land and forest fire task force has been declared as the best team in Indonesia for preventing forest and land fires, he pointed out.

Noerdin explained that preventing forest and field fires in 2018 will pose a serious challenge, as South Sumatra will witness two important events: the regional elections and Asian Games.

Meanwhile, speaking at the National Coordination Meeting on Forest and Land Fire Control in 2018 at the State Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday, President Joko Widodo encouraged security officers in areas prone to land fires to prevent the disaster from recurring. "I will dismiss officers from the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) or Police if I find land fires in their regions," the president emphasized.

President Widodo reiterated that the regional police and TNI leaders would be removed from their posts if fires were to be found in their areas. "The effort aims to encourage the land fires mitigation task force," the president noted.

President Widodo also lauded the TNI and Police officers for taking precautionary measures against fires in the past two years. The number of hotspots has decreased significantly, from 21,929 in 2015 to 3,915 hotspots in 2016 and 2,567 hotspots in 2017.

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