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Water crisis, harvest failure hits most of country
Farmers in Bali, Sumatra and Java have been struggling over the past few months to provide sufficient water for their crop fields, with almost all of Indonesiaâs main islands hit by prolonged drought
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armers in Bali, Sumatra and Java have been struggling over the past few months to provide sufficient water for their crop fields, with almost all of Indonesia's main islands hit by prolonged drought.
In Bali, a popular resort island for domestic and international tourists, a total of 350 hectares of rice fields have been hit by drought following a long lack of rain across the island, according to the province's Agriculture Agency head, Ida Bagus Wisnuardhana.
Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Friday, Wisnuardhana said the affected rice fields had been found in four regencies, namely Jembrana, Tabanan, Buleleng and Badung. In an attempt to prevent harvest failure, he said, the agency had distributed 200 water pumps to farmers groups to help them channel water to their dried-up rice fields.
'The rice fields have been suffering moderate impacts of drought. The fields, however, have yet to experience harvest failure. We can still help them recover,' he said.
Drought, he added, had plagued some rice fields since June, and could last until September.
'We hope that the dry season will end sooner than expected, as some parts of Bali have had rain in the last few days,' he added.
Meanwhile in Jambi, the Bungo regional administration reported on Friday that a total of 1,058 ha of productive rice fields in the regency had been hit by drought.
'It has been confirmed that some 548 ha of the parched farmland have experienced crop failure,' said the regency's Agriculture, Food Crops and Horticultural Agency head, Khairul Saleh.
Among the worst-hit regions, according to Khairul, are Tanah Sepenggal and Tanah Sepenggal Lintas districts.
'Ironically, the affected paddy fields in the districts there have just been designated as model crop fields,' he said.
Many regions in the country have been struggling with water crises caused by months without rain, a result of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which affects temperature and rainfall.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicted on Thursday that the intensity of El Niño could strengthen in the next four months, giving rise to an extended dry season.
Separately, Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo said on Friday that the provincial administration would allocate more than Rp 20 billion (US$1.5 million) to curb the worsening water crisis in the province.
According to Ganjar, the drought has so far hit some 10 percent of the 7,804 villages across Central Java.
'The administration has earmarked Rp 20 billion to provide, among other things, clean water assistance, which will be delivered by the Central Java Disaster Mitigation Agency [BPBD],' he said.
Ganug Nugroho Adi in Surakarta contributed to the article
