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72 villages in N. Gorontalo suffer a water crisis

Extreme drought: Residents of 72 villages in North Gorontalo suffer from a water crisis as wells dry up in the prolonged drought

Syamsul Huda M.Suhari (The Jakarta Post)
Gorontalo
Tue, September 29, 2015

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72 villages in N. Gorontalo suffer a water crisis Extreme drought: Residents of 72 villages in North Gorontalo suffer from a water crisis as wells dry up in the prolonged drought. (Illustration courtesy of tempo.co) (Illustration courtesy of tempo.co)

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span class="inline inline-center">Extreme drought: Residents of 72 villages in North Gorontalo suffer from a water crisis as wells dry up in the prolonged drought. (Illustration courtesy of tempo.co)

Local residents of Bubalango village in East Sumalata district, North Gorontalo regency, are fortunate enough to still have safe drinking water although their wells have begun to dry up as a result of the drought, which has been ongoing for more than three months.

A Bubalango villager, Risan Adam, said water filled only part of of his six-meter-deep well; still, he allowed other villagers to take water from the well. Risan said that every day, at least ten families living near his house came to his house to get clean water from his well. Each of the family members brought buckets or cans to collect water for their daily needs.

'€œIn such a difficult situation, we have to help each other,'€ said Risan.

While he still could enjoy an adequate supply of clean water, Risan said residents in other villages, such as Bulantio, in East Sumalata were suffering from a water crisis. Every day, residents in Bulantio village had walked around 5 kilometers to reach nearby villages to get clean water as some wells in the villages still left a small amount of water, he added.

Similarly, residents of Buloila village must walk around 3 km to Lolato, a neighboring village, to get clean water.

The North Gorontalo Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) recorded that 72 villages in 11 districts were suffering from a water crisis, triggered by long dry spells. Currently, the North Gorontalo administration has continued to distribute water to the villages. The administration has distributed 3,000 tons of clean water since it declared drought emergency status on Aug. 13.

The BPBD North Gorontalo head of disaster emergency unit, Nurdin, said local people used clean water distributed for their daily basic needs, such as washing, cooking, drinking and taking a bath.

'€œRivers in North Gorontalo have dried up. The regency'€™s state tap water company [PDAM] cannot supply clean water to several districts due to a lack of supply of raw water,'€ he told thejakartapost.com on Monday.

Nurdin said that every day BPBD North Gorontalo dispatched eight water tank vehicles with a capacity of 5,500 tons of water each to supply the people with clean water, starting from 8 a.m. local time and lasting until the evening.

He said the drought emergency operation would be extended until the water crisis could be fully handled in the upcoming rainy season.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) earlier reported that North Gorontalo had been affected by an extreme drought as it had not rained for the past 60 days. (ebf)

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