T

he government has said that the El Niño weather phenomenon would not wreak havoc on the country'€™s agricultural sector and that harvest failure would cause minimal damage.

Inspector general of the Agriculture Ministry Justan Riduan Siahaan said that only a small area of paddy would be affected by El Niño.

'€œI don'€™t have the exact figure, but the minister himself has said the national figure [of paddy affected by El Niño] would be 17,000 hectares,'€ Justan said as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said that the extreme weather phenomenon would only affect areas south of the equator and a small area of Java and West Nusa Tenggara.

Climate experts have warned that this year'€™s El Niño was likely to match the intensity of the record-breaking weather phenomenon in 1997, which induced a prolonged drought and widespread bush fires in the country.

The Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology said that Java had borne the brunt of the weather phenomenon as indicated by the very low rainfall.

'€œThe dry season in Java is especially severe this year. Since June, rainfall in Java has amounted to less than 60 millimeters per month, even less than the average set by the [Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency] BMKG for the dry season, which is at least 150 mm per month. It'€™s the same with what we had in 1997,'€ said Tri Handoko Seto, the head of the center told a press briefing on Tuesday.

Although the BMKG said that El Niño had yet to reach its peak, a number of regions have been affected by severe drought.

In Boyolali, Central Java, locals have resorted to consuming muddy water left at the bottom of creeks in the areas that were almost dry.

Some people have separated dirt from water by distilling it in a container overnight.

'€œWe have no other option but to do this. There'€™s no more running water as the rivers and creeks have ran dry. We'€™re taking what'€™s left,'€ said Supardjo, one of the locals, on Wednesday.

He said that the local government had not provided enough emergency water supplies for people in
the area.

'€œThere are more than 200 people here. The clean water the government sent was only enough for 50 people and the last distribution was two weeks ago,'€ he said.

In Jambi, meanwhile, local authorities said that they had experienced problems extinguishing fires that razed forests in the area.

Head of Jambi'€™s Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Arif Munandar said that firefighters had trouble finding water sources to put out the raging fire.

He said that some regions, such as East Tanjung Jabung regency, were completely dry, preventing firefighters from working effectively.

'€œWe need a water bomber to drop water from the air,'€ Arif said as quoted by Antara.