The long absence of rain in many parts of the country has forced residents to rely on support from local authorities or to search for alternative sources of clean water to survive.

In Merangin regency, Jambi, the extended dry season has dried up most wells in region, making it difficult for locals to get clean water for their daily needs.

Mustafa, a resident of Tambang Emas subdistrict in the South Pamenang district, for example, said he and other villagers had to enter a wood located some 2 kilometers from his village to dig wells in search of clean water.

For the past few days, the villagers, according to Mustafa, had together dug wells in the wood and shared the water equally among themselves.

'€œThere has been no rain in the village over the past three months. Our wells have dried up, while no clean water deliveries are provided by the local administration,'€ Mustafa said.

Slamet, a hamlet chief in the subdistrict, said he would encourage all people in his neighborhood to participate in the efforts to search for water, explaining that they were running out options to survive the water crisis.

'€œWe need to continue to work together to make wells, as it is now very difficult to find clean water sources,'€ he said.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned that the dry season this year could last longer than that of previous years because of the weather phenomenon known as El Niño.

The BMKG predicts that the El Niño effect will extend Indonesia'€™s dry season, which normally takes place between April and September, until November, and affect 18 out of the country'€™s 34 provinces.

In Banten, the Tangerang Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) reported that drought had hit 24 out of the regency'€™s 29 districts.

Among the worst-hit areas are Mauk, Balaraja, Legok, Panongan, Pagedangan, Sepatan and Gunung Kaler, according to the agency'€™s disaster mitigation subdivision head, Karnadi.

'€œWe have distributed 250,000 liters of clean water to people in the affected regions,'€ Karnadi told Antara news agency on Sunday.

Meanwhile in Central Kalimantan, Antara reported that the prolonged dry season has also led the water surface on some parts of the 890-kilometer-long Barito River, one of the country'€™s longest rivers, to severely recede. This, for example, has led residents in the North Barito and Murung Raya regencies to create support routes to ensure the safety of river transportation users.

The head of the North Barito Transportation Communication and Informatics Agency'€™s Transportation and Lake River Traffic division, Nurdin, said the supporting routes were usually marked with bamboo or small wooden poles in the shallow parts of the river, to help small boats pass over the deeper channels.

The poles, he said, were placed on the right and left sides of the deep parts of the river so that users were able to pass along the route between the two lines of poles that marked the area of the river considered safe.

A number of teenagers or boys usually stood along the routes to help guide passing boats, which voluntarily pay them between Rp 2,000 (14 US cents) and Rp 5,000 a trip. '€œThis really helps because a wrong move might send a passing boat to go aground,'€ Nurdin said.

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