RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The Indonesian government is taking precautionary measures to prepare for El Niño, a tropical climate phenomenon from the Pacific Ocean that is expected to intensify this year's dry season. One of the main priorities is ensuring adequate water reserves and preventing forest fires, as Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto met officials at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday, July 29, 2026.

Following the meeting, Head of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Teuku Faisal Fathani, said that the agency would strengthen its support in responding to the upcoming conditions. These include replenishing reservoirs by weather modification, in cooperation with relevant institutions.

"The BMKG is conducting several weather modification operations in cooperation with the BNPB National Disaster Mitigation Agency, the Ministry of Forestry, and private companies to replenish reservoirs across Indonesia," Faisal said, as quoted by the Indonesian Presidential Secretariat.

"We have 240 reservoirs. We are trying to refill some of them, although not all, so they can be used for hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, and clean water supplies," he said.

Faisal added that weather modification efforts to address forest and land fires would focus on saturating peatlands with moisture to maintain groundwater levels. These operations will be focused in six provinces: Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan.

"Weather modification (may also) include the Riau Islands and Aceh, as well as several other locations, depending on the situation and conditions," he said.

Faisal said that similar measures have already been done this year, which have increased rainfall by 30 to 40 percent in certain areas. He also noted that preventive measures such as these have proven effective in controlling forest and land fires in Indonesia, after the large 2015 fires that caused haze in some Southeast Asian countries.

"In 2015, forest and land fires were particularly severe. That was when we introduced a new paradigm centered on preventive measures. As a result, forest and land fires are now relatively better controlled than they were prior to 2015," he said.