Govt prepares planting for HST's water catchment area, to reduce flood

Barabai, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - The Provincial Government of South Kalimantan through the Forestry Agency is pre-preparing a planting program for water catchment area to reduce the impact of flooding in Central Hulu Sungai (HST) District.

Acting Head of the agency Fathimatuzzahra here on Thursday said that the program supports Governor Sahbirin Noor's green revolution program.

In 2022, she said, the agency re-allocated the land cover program in water catchment areas with funds from the state budget (APBN) and the regional budget (APBD).

From the APBD, forest and land rehabilitation (RHL) program covering an area of 50 hectares has been allocated. RHL is an effort to restore, maintain, and improve the function of forests and land in order to increase their carrying capacity, productivity, and their role in maintaining life support system.

Meanwhile, from the APBN is allocated for planting six units of community nurseries (KBR) for forest farmer groups with IDR100 million per unit for seeding, planting, and maintenance on 25 hectares of land.

"If there are six units then the fund to be disbursed is IDR600 million for 150 hectares," she said.

In addition, there are three units for village nurseries (KBD) with the same funding value and area.

KBR and KBD are tasked with providing seeds for woody plants, as well as non-timber forest product (HHBK) plants that can increase community welfare, as well as support the restoration of function and carrying capacity of the river basin areas (DAS).

Some areas ar targeted for the program, such as Datar Ajab and several surrounding villages.

The program is expected to be accessible to the community to improve welfare, as well as accelerate land cover programs in water catchment areas.

Previously, the agency attended an expose of the results of a study on the causes of flooding in HST held by the provincial government together with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the University of Indonesia (UI) and the University of Lambung Mangkurat (ULM) team in Barabai.