REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PALEMBANG -- Regional Disaster Management Board (BPBD) has predicted that the drought will peak in August 2018. It will be in conjunction with the international sporting event of Asian Games from Aug 18 to Sept 2, 2018, in Jakarta and the South Sumatra provincial capital city of Palembang.

South Sumatra BPBD Chief Iriansyah remarked here on Monday that based on Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) report, the temperature in August, during the Asian Games, will be very hot.

He said that although the drought will peak in August when the temperature will be very hot, it will not disturb the process of Asian Games because because various anticipations have been prepared. What is clear is that he said the BMKG is always vigilant and to anticipate the smoke haze that could occur due to forest and land fires.

Forest fire during the dry season, he said, must be anticipated and prevented in order not to disturb Asian Games but to make it a success.

Earlier, the Environmental Affairs and Forestry Ministry is optimistic that the 2018 Asian Games to be free from haze. The government has been doing its utmost to prevent forest fires, Rafles Brotestes Panjaitan, director of forest and land fire control of the ministry, said.

The regional government had declared a wildfire emergency status since February 1 to October 30, 2018. The government has learned from the 2015 forest fire disaster that had burned some 700 thousand hectares of forest and plantation areas in five districts, according to him.

Lately, forest fire accidents were categorized as small and could be extinguished immediately, he said.

In 2016, the South Sumatra administration managed to reduce forest and plantation fires by 97 percent, thanks to early detection and wet dry season. Last year, the number of wildfires in the province was very few and they did not produce haze.

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