JAKARTA: From reduced state coffers, overwhelmed hospitals to shortages in face masks, the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to present unprecedented challenges in Indonesia's fight against another disaster - the annual forest and land fires.
Mr Sugardiman said the central government is hoping that provincial and regency administrations would fork out 70 per cent of the expenses needed to combat forest fires, while the ministry covers the rest.A firefighter in front of a peatland forest that has been destroyed by fire in September 2019.
Last year, 1.6 million ha were burned, making it the worst forest fires in the country since the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis where haze from Indonesia affected millions of people in several countries in the region.More than 900,000 people in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore reported respiratory illnesses during last year’s forest and peatland fires, according to findings from the World Bank., have declared a state of emergency as forest fires began to spread across the archipelago.
Firefighters dousing flames in a forest fire in Rimbo Panjang village, Riau, Indonesia, in September 2019. More than 66,000 people in Indonesia have contracted COVID-19, and at least 3,000 of whom have died, making Indonesia the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia.During a cabinet meeting on Jun 23, President Joko Widodo told his ministers to prepare for forest and peatland fires as Indonesia enters the dry season.
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