REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PALANGKARAYA -- President Joko Widodo inspected a blocking canal development project in Pulang Pisau Saturday, which is intended to prevent peat land fires in the district.
President Jokowi, as he is also known, and his entourage arrived at the location at around 2 pm after flying from Jambi, Sumatra, to inspect the handling and impact of forest and land fires in the region.
"A month ago we came here and the peat lands were on fire. There used to be no water, so peat lands were easy to burn. Now we have a blocking canal network. This will go to Kahiyang River. There will always be water here which will infiltrate into the peat lands on the left and right sides. This is what will prevent the fire from burning the peat land," he said.
Jokowi entered the peat lands that had been burned, in the company of Forestry and Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya, coordinating ministers Luhut Panjaitan and Puan Maharani and Public Works Minister Basuki Hadimoeljono.
"This has been carried out for a month. The canal and blocks can already be seen. Later we will develop it at all locations which are vulnerable to fires," he said.
The project would continue in all provinces in the country to minimize forest and peat land fires, he said.
"The first step is building canals (to overcome fire problems). The second one is prevention. So when a fire is detected in a district, it is the district that will put it out quickly. But if it has spread to five to ten locations it will be the provincial government that must extinguish them. It is the responsibility of autonomous regions. Only after fires spread and are difficult to overcome will the central government take over," he said.
Law enforcement efforts would be continued, and so far 270 parties including institutions and individuals have been names suspects, President Jokowi said.
"Meetings are still continuing with regard to regulations needed including government regulations in lieu of laws, presidential regulations and others (to deal with the fire problem)," he said.
There was light rainfall during the visit along the road towards Pulang Pisau which is an hour's drive from Palangka Raya, the capital of Central Kalimantan.
When President Jokowi visited the district a month ago haze was very thick.
The district has now been taken as the location for a blocking canal development pilot project.
Primary canals stretching 300 meters with a width of 1.5 meters and depth of 3 meters have been built in 28 locations in addition to 7-km long secondary canals measuring a width of 4 meters and depth of 6 meters on the left and right sides of the streets.
Meanwhile, a tertiary canal has been built between water pools measuring 7 kms, which is one meter wide and one meter deep in addition to a big water reservoir measuring 20x30x6 meters in two locations and 10x10x3 meters in 28 locations.
The pools are needed to store water so that canals will not go without water during a dry season.
A similar project will also be carried out in Ogan Komering Ilir and Banyuasin in South Sumatra.
President Joko Widodo left Jambi for Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Saturday morning to continue his tour of forest and land fire affected areas in the country.
The President stayed for three days in Sumatra to observe the haze-affected areas before he left for Palangkaraya together with his wife Iriana Joko Widodo and their entourage. They took off from Jambi's Sultan Thaha Saifuddin airport and are expected to arrive at Palangkaraya airport at 11 am and head for SD 8 Pahandut elementary school in Palangkaraya.
After checking the peatland area, Jokowi and party are scheduled to leave for Jakarta and are expected to arrive at Halim Perdanakusuma airport at 6 pm.
Before visiting Jambi, President Jokowi had also visited South Sumatra to review the handling of land and forest fires in Ogan Komering Ilir District.
The President visited South Sumatra shortly after his arrival in Jakarta from his visit to the United States (US).
Jokowi had to cut short his state visit to the US due to the alarming smoke conditions resulting from the forest and land fires affecting several of Indonesia's main islands.
After meeting US President Barack Obama, Jokowi canceled a series of engagements on his agenda in San Francisco and assigned relevant ministers to continue with the State visit as planned.
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