Anticipating a severe drought

Anticipating a severe drought

At a meeting in Bangkok, experts warned that severe drought
brought on by the El Nino freak weather phenomenon could have an
extremely damaging effect on agriculture in Southeast Asia. Yet
the prolonged drought during the past year did not represent the
worst of El Nino's impact. For this reason, worse conditions must
be anticipated.

The current economic crisis and effects of El Nino are hitting
Indonesia simultaneously. Experts have warned that conditions may
decline even further unless the correct measures are taken.

Last year's drought and forest fires were not entirely El
Nino's fault. Human actions have also been shown to have
exacerbated the disaster. It is to be hoped that the experts'
warning from Bangkok will help spur us to properly anticipate the
unpleasant possibilities from this concurrence of an unusual
weather phenomenon and the economic crisis, which we are even now
trying to overcome through various measures.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta