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Extreme weather wipes out harvests

A number of farmers in Pancasari village near Buyan Lake appear depressed and resigned to the fact that are they are unlikely to have good harvests this season as lake water has inundated their fields

The Jakarta Post
Fri, February 18, 2011

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Extreme weather wipes out harvests

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number of farmers in Pancasari village near Buyan Lake appear depressed and resigned to the fact that are they are unlikely to have good harvests this season as lake water has inundated their fields.

The area around Buyan Lake in Buleleng regency has experience torrential rain of late, which has resulted in the lake’s water level rising 200 meters above its normal level.

Buyan Lake is one of the three lakes besides Beratan and Tamblingan lakes on the border of Buleleng and Tabanan regencies.

The area is one of Bali’s major producers of fresh produce, with the cool climate making the area ideal for cultivating fruit and vegetables.

Nengah Sutarman, a strawberry farmer in Banjar Sari Kauh, Buyan, talked about the misfortune brought about by the water inundating his strawberry field, which had resulted in poor soil conditions.

“It will take between two and five years for the soil to return to its normal condition so that it is suitable for cultivating strawberries and other fruit,” Sutarman said. Currently, water from Buyan Lake has inundated around 50 hectares of farming sites located along the lake’s shores.

Ketut Sadia, another farmer, added that the water was mixed with thick mud and other solid materials from the lake.

Sutarman said the flooding had caused many farmers to experience significant financial losses. Citing an example, he said that every two days, each farmer normally picked 35 kilograms of strawberries planted on a 1,000 square meter plot of land. Other farmers could get dozens of kilos of red pepper, broccoli, carrots and other vegetables.

Village chief Wayan Artawan said the area experienced the same condition in l974 and l975.

Artawan said local authorities had paid no attention to the farmers’ misfortune. “Not a single effort has been made by the authorities [agriculture office and public works office] to deal with this problem,” he added.

Environmental activists from the Bali Forum for the Environment (Walhi Bali) previously made a comprehensive study that revealed that the three lakes — Buyan, Beratan and Tamblingan — were in a dilapidated condition. Thick sedimentation had caused the water level to rise.

Uncontrolled tourism-related development projects and housing complexes had affected the three lakes’ condition.

— JP/Alit Kartarahardja

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