After days of bad weather last week initially impeded relief efforts, authorities said they had managed to deliver 5.2 tonnes of food aid and emergency kits to drought-stricken Agandugume district in Central Papua.

One-fourth of the aid was delivered by air directly to Agandugume after the bad weather that had previously hindered aid airlifts began to ease, and the remaining came via the Sinak airstrip in the neighboring Sinak district, the launching point for aid to Agandugume.

The aid included a total of 515 packets of basic food commodities, 475 mattresses, 100 blankets, seven electricity generators and 60 tents, according to National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesperson Abdul Muhari.

“This aid will be delivered continuously. The BNPB will continue to assist both the logistics and the transportation [to the areas] during this emergency response period,” Abdul said in a statement released on Monday.

He said his office had also been scouting a suitable location for a food warehouse to be built near the Agandugume airstrip.

Plans to develop a food estate project in Agandugume were first mentioned by Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy during his visit to the district last week, as part of longer-term efforts to prevent the regular food shortages in the region.

The districts of Agandugume and Lambewi in Puncak regency have been suffering from droughts and cold weather since June, causing key crops to fail or rot and forcing locals to eat spoiled tubers. Some 7,500 residents of the two districts have been affected, with six people, including a baby, dying of dehydration or diarrhea.

Located some 1,400 meters above sea level, these districts are some of the only places in the country where snow falls.

Attempts to provide humanitarian aid had started on July 26, but bad weather hindered aid airlifts to Agundugume. These supplies were instead transported by air from Jakarta via Mozes Kilangin International Airport in Timika, the biggest city in Mimika regency, which borders drought-hit Puncak regency, before being flown to the Sinak airstrip. Some batches of aid reportedly were sent from Jayapura, the capital of West Papua province.

Due to the lack of land routes from Sinak to the affected districts, Agandugume residents were forced to walk for two days to pick up the aid in the neighboring district and bring it back home.

Bad weather also prevented on Wednesday a Cessna Caravan aircraft from transporting food supplies and blankets from Mozes Kilangin airport in Timika to Sinak. The aircraft, with minister Muhadjir and BNPB head Suharyanto on board to visit the affected districts, was forced to leave Timika for Sinak on Thursday instead.

Puncak regency has so far received 25.15 tonnes of aid in the form of ready-to-eat meals, canned foods, tents, blankets and clothing from the Social Affairs Ministry, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and mining company PT Freeport, among other institutions.

The drought in Puncak regency happens at a time when Indonesia is bracing for more dry spells nationwide due to the El Niño climatic phenomenon, in which a warmer Pacific Ocean brings hotter air to the Indonesian archipelago, increasing the likelihood of drought.

To this end, the Public Works and Housing Ministry is working on ensuring that people throughout the country have access to clean water first before building irrigation channels for farms.

“We are now [focusing our resources on] the rehabilitation and maintenance of existing wells as well as dams and reservoirs,” the ministry’s acting water resources director general Jarot Widyoko said in a statement on Monday.

In areas where groundwater basins have dried up, Djarot said that his ranks would also coordinate with local administrations to set up water tanks for people who relied on groundwater.

The government is expecting the dry season to have more of an impact in areas with little rainfall, such as East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces, as well as Bali, Maluku, South Sulawesi and Papua.

In these provinces, Djarot said the ministry would conduct assessments of potential water sources that would be sufficient for boreholes.

— Radhiyya Indra contributed to the story.