PORTALJABAR, GARUT REGENCY - Garut Regent Abdusy Syakur Amin chaired a meeting of the Garut Regency Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) in the Pamengkang Meeting Room, Garut City District, on Tuesday (August 11, 2026). The meeting discussed anticipatory measures for forest and land fires (karhutla) and drought during the dry season.

This measure follows the Central Government's directive for regional governments to increase vigilance during the dry season. The Garut Regent emphasized that disaster management requires the involvement of various parties, including the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri).

"Earlier, we received information that fires have started to occur in Garut, and we learned that not only the Garut Regency Government is responding to these fires, but also our colleagues from the Police and the Military District Command (Kodim). The Kodim is even helping prepare tanks for use in handling the fires," he said.

Syakur stated that the Mount Guntur area is one of the areas requiring increased vigilance. Throughout July 2026, five fires occurred, destroying approximately 13 hectares of land. All of these incidents were successfully contained.

Furthermore, residents' habit of indiscriminately burning land has also drawn attention. The Garut Regency Government will soon issue a circular to the public urging them to refrain from indiscriminate land burning.

To maintain water availability for the agricultural sector, the Garut Regency Government has distributed 98 water pumps and has pumps from the Military District Command (Kodim) on standby in case of water shortages in rice fields. To date, the fires have not reportedly spread to productive food crops.

The Garut Regency Government has also issued a Regent's Decree on the Determination of the 2026 Drought and Forest and Land Fire Disaster Alert Status, which is valid from July 1 to September 30, 2026.

According to a report from the Garut Regency Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), 303 forest and land fires have been recorded. Of these, 285 have been contained, while 18 are still under monitoring. Specifically, 135 forest fires were recorded as being due to the impact of the dry season.

In handling the clean water crisis, BPBD has distributed 125,000 liters of clean water to eight villages/sub-districts in six affected sub-districts, namely Tarogong Kaler, Pasirwangi, Cigedug, Cibatu, Sucinaraja, and Karangpawitan sub-districts.

To meet long-term needs, the Garut Regency Government has also requested assistance for the construction of 100 drilled wells and an additional fleet of water tankers from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

Despite the increase in disaster intensity, the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) ensures that handling is still ongoing through coordination across regional agencies and has not yet raised the status to Emergency Response.

(Garut Communications and Information Service/rka)