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