Drought-hit Jayawijaya gets more relief offers<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The drought-hit Jayawijaya regency in
\nIndonesia's easternmost province is to get more help as the
\nembassies of Japan and the United States here have offered to
\nsend relief, Antara reported.<\/p>\n
Regent J.B. Wenas was quoted by the news agency as saying the
\noffers were made via telephone from the ambassadors of the
\nrespective countries asking about the regency's most urgent
\nneeds.<\/p>\n
Jayawijaya is one of the areas worst affected by this year's
\nsevere drought. Four hundred and thirteen drought-related deaths
\nhave been recorded, most caused by cholera and occurring between
\nAugust and mid-September.<\/p>\n
Wenas said similar offers of assistance had been made by
\nseveral senior government officials in Jakarta. The last dispatch
\nof food relief from the Bank of Indonesia came through Saturday
\nwith the help of the Air Force's Hercules aircraft.<\/p>\n
He said the regency's natural disaster management coordinating
\nunit received Friday Rp 4,466,000 (US$1,300) in aid from the
\nprovince's Bank Pembangunan Daerah.<\/p>\n
It also received two sacks of cassava from Jayawijaya's
\nNational Youth Committee (KNPI), and instant noodles and rice
\nbought by small change donated by thousands of elementary school
\nstudents in Wamena, Jayawijaya's capital.<\/p>\n
"We've handed over the food collected by the pupils to the
\nunit in the hope it will soon be channeled to those in need,"
\nAntara quoted Biutana, headmaster of the state-run elementary
\nschool in the regency's Mulele subdistrict, as saying.<\/p>\n
Jayawijaya is populated by about 500,000 people, one fourth of
\nIrian Jaya's total population, who live in 28 subdistricts
\nscattered in the vastly rugged mountainous region, which is about
\nthe size of East Java.<\/p>\n
Wenas said the regency needed more rice, instant noodles,
\nsalted fish, milk powder, sugar and cooking oil, as well as
\ncooking pans and plastic utensils.<\/p>\n
Wenas said the relief was needed to anticipate the harsher
\nimpact of failed crops caused by the drought.<\/p>\n
He said that in the long run the regency would need
\nagricultural machinery and experts to help villagers recover
\ntheir parched farmland. More doctors are also needed to promote
\nvillagers' health, he added.<\/p>\n
This year's prolonged dry spell, believed to have been induced
\nby the El Nino weather phenomenon, has aggravated forest fires
\nacross Kalimantan and Sumatra. It has also caused the failure of
\ncrops and rice harvests in some parts of Central Java.<\/p>\n
Antara reported Saturday that "thousands of hectares" of rice
\nfields in Central Java's Boyolali regency had dried up in the
\nlast three months, also drying up farmers' income and their
\nlivelihood.<\/p>\n
The same plight was also reported in the regencies of
\nGrobogan, Sragen, Rembang, Wonogiri, Karanganyar, Pati and Blora
\nwhere most villagers had become jobless in the last three months.<\/p>\n
Some villagers told the news agency that they had run out of
\nfood since last May and were forced to go to cities like Semarang
\nand Jakarta to seek work to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
Worsening the plight was the shortage of clean water, Antara
\nreported. Wells have dried up since last month.<\/p>\n
Blora regency spokesman Wahyu Suharto said the local
\ngovernment was aware of the drought situation, and the
\nadministration had been supplying villages with water, albeit in
\nlimited amount because there were only a few water tanks. (aan)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/drought-hit-jayawijaya-gets-more-relief-offers-1447893297",
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