Banjarmasin declares emergency haze alert

Banjarmasin City government and Forkopimda in their coordination meeting on Wednesday (Oct 4, 2023) decide emergency haze alert status until October 30, 2023. (ANTARA/HO-Humas Pemkot Banjarmasin)

Banjarmasin, S Kalimatan (ANTARA) - Haze that enveloped the City of Banjarmasin in the past few days has prompted the local authorities to place the city under the emergency alert status.

"The Government of Banjarmasin City considers seriously the phenomenon of the ongoing disaster to decide on the status," said Assistant 1 for Government and Social Welfare Machli Riyadi here on Wednesday.

According to him, the city government has held a cooordination meeting with the city leadership coordination forum (forkopimda) for handling the severe haze coming from forest and land fires and decided an emergency haze alert until October 30, 2023.

On previous day, the city authorities decided to close schools for four days to implement online school for the reason of worsening of haze.

Actually, he said, the Mayor's Decree of August 1, 2023 has established alert status for handling of forest and land fires disaster and drought in the city.

Because the condition getting worse, the city government immediately took strategic steps to deal with it.

"The level of thickness is serious and Banjarmasin 's air quality is very unhealthy," said Machli Riyadi.

This year's extreme dry season has forced Banjarmasin to strengthen its rank in disaster management.

Data from the Banjarmasin Disaster Mitigtation Agency (BPBD) shows that there are 31 hotspots in the city.

"Several areas that borders neighboring disticts, such as Barito Kuala and Banjar, are very vulnerable to being affected by forest and land fires," he said.

He said the Banjarmasin City Government is very grateful for the help of all parties, including independent volunteer firefighters in the city, working hard together to tackle the fires to this day.

Meanwhile, Head of Banjarmasin BPBD Husni Thamrin said that currently the subdistricts mostly affected by haze are North Banjarmasin, South Banjarmasin, and East Banjarmasin.