TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - For more than a month, the nighttime view in the villages of Wanam and Wogekel in Ilwayab District, Merauke Regency, South Papua, has changed. The sky glows a reddish hue. Residents of the two villages can see flames burning at several points along the site of a road being built to support the mega food estate project.
Hariston Moiwend visited one of the fire sites on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. The 44-year-old is a resident of Wanam, but lives in Wogekel, a new village formed through the division of Wanam. He went to the fire area because flames had raged not far from a swamp forest belonging to the Moiwend Buako clan in Domokalok hamlet, Wanam, which has been cleared by the road project built to support the food estate for more than a year.
He suspected that the embers around Kilometer 55 of the supporting road were intentionally set. The flames, he said, originated from logs left over from land clearing that had been piled in long rows along the new road. "The problem is that the fire has also spread to trees that are still standing around the project site," Hariston said on Sunday, August 30, 2026.
Wanam and Wogekel are where construction began on a 135-kilometer road in early 2024. The project was initiated by Prabowo Subianto, who at the time was still Defense Minister and had already been declared the winner of the presidential election. The government planned to build new rice fields on both sides of the road, stretching from Ilwayab District in the west to Muting District in the east.
Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine