Surabaya Drafts Heat Action Plan as El Nino Drives Extreme Heat

The Surabaya city government is drafting a heat action plan to serve as a guide for coping with and preventing the effects of extreme heat, according to surabaya.kompas.com. The document will assign specific responsibilities to each regional apparatus organization (OPD), including for situations where extreme heat reaches an emergency level. Officials are targeting completion of the plan in November, after which it will be validated and merged with a document being prepared at the central government level.

Pungky Sugiarto, who heads the disaster management sub-division at the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Surabaya, said the drafting process is currently at the stage of collecting programs and activities from stakeholders across the city. He said the work so far includes mapping which urban systems are affected by extreme heat and identifying vulnerable groups, as well as gathering both existing and long-term stakeholder programs that could support city heat action.

Yanu Mardianto, head of prevention and preparedness at the Surabaya Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), said his agency will act as the leading sector and ensure the plan can be carried out by each OPD. He said discussion forums involving multiple agencies are needed to agree on concrete steps. According to Yanu, several agencies have already run heat-related programs: the Environment Agency supports tree planting, the Water Resources and Highways Agency has built mini retention ponds to help lower temperatures, and the Fire and Rescue Service sprays roads to reduce the heat radiating from sun-exposed surfaces. "When this document is finished, we will have a guide for facing extreme heat," he said, adding that BPBD will coordinate and responsibilities will be clearly assigned.

BPBD's role is expected to be most prominent during emergencies. If heat-related cases such as heatstroke occur, the agency would coordinate the response together with relevant OPDs. Separately, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) is preparing an information system to support early warnings for extreme heat in Surabaya.

Oky Sukma Hakim, a weather forecaster at BMKG's Class I Juanda Meteorological Station, said the current heat is tied to the dry season combined with an El Nino that has been under way since June 2026. He described the El Nino as very strong in intensity, making the atmosphere over Indonesia drier, prolonging the dry season and pushing air temperatures above normal. Oky also noted that a culmination phenomenon — linked to the sun's apparent annual movement — would place the sun directly over Surabaya around October 12, as it travels from 23.5 degrees north latitude toward 23.5 degrees south.

Once the Surabaya document is validated, it will be combined with the central government's plan, officials said. Until then, the city's agencies are continuing existing heat-mitigation programs while the action plan is finalized.