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bout 8,000 hectares of farmland belonging to residents in East Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, may face droughts in the current dry season, the administration has warned.

East Kupang district chief Melkianus Messakh on Sunday said the regency administration was currently constructing three small water reservoirs Batudale, Jatidale and Manusak villages and a dam in Nunkurus village to anticipate the drought.

The construction is around 40 percent complete. It's just a short-term step to anticipate droughts," Melkianus said as quoted by Antara.

The administration would also renovate two dams named Tekad Makmur and Deta Makmur in Oesao village, he said.

Oeaso villagers used to take water from a river in Uel village, Melkianus said. " But that was not enough because there was only enough water to support 800 hectares of agriculture."

"If all the water resources *from dams* could be used, in 2010 the villagers would not face droughts any more," he said.

Separately, the head of a farmers group in Oeasu village, Victor Ndolu, said they used water from 110 wells to anticipate the drought. "But the water debit in the wells is now decreasing."

Meanwhile, the drought, which began in June this year, has also threatened the operation of micro-hydro power plants in the province which has a population of 4.5 million.

Head of the province's mining and energy agency, Bria Yohanes, said four regencies which used micro-hydro power plants were beginning to face electricity shortages because of decreasing water supplies.

"We have identified regencies which use the micro-hydro power plants. This is a natural phenomenon. We could not avoid it. The people should understand it," Yohanes said.

The four regencies are Alor, Timor Tengah Selatan, Belu and Ngada.

"One of the power plants, in Apui village ... in Alor regency could not be operated at all because of the water shortage," he said.

Besides regencies in East Nusa Tenggara, other areas across the country are also facing droughts.

Thousands of hectares of farm land in Cirebon, West Java, for example, is facing droughts.

Cirebon Agriculture, Plantation and Animal Husbandry Agency chief Ali Effendi said last week that the worst affected areas were Suranenggala and Kapetakan districts, with more than 1,000 hectares of paddies affected.

Some 200 hectares of rice farms in Lemahabang, Mundu and Astanajapura district were also facing droughts.