Diarrhea hits Gunungkidul amid drought

The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Cirebon/Bandung

As many as 2,000 people in Gunungkidul regency, Yogyakarta, are suffering from diarrhea and respiratory problems due to water shortages amid the prolonged dry season, health officials said on Wednesday.

"As of yesterday (Tuesday), around 2,000 people were reported to be infected by diarrhea and respiratory problems," head of the Gunungkidul health office Wachyudi told The Jakarta Post.

He said the two diseases were closely related to the problem of hygiene and shortage of clean water, and that they spread during the annual drought in Gunungkidul, one of the country's poorest regencies.

Speaking in the neighboring regency of Sleman on Wednesday, Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi warned the public that diarrhea and respiratory disease could spread during the current drought.

He was quoted by the detik website as saying the government would provide medicine for the two complaints and help send trucks to supply clean water to drought-hit villages.

To prevent the spread of the diseases, the Gunungkidul health office has deployed a number of physicians at community health centers (Puskesmas) across the regency, Wachyudi said.

"We'll also provide education in villages on how to counter diarrhea and respiratory problems," he added.

The drought has caused water shortages in most parts of Gunungkidul, forcing many villagers to sell their household equipment for clean water. Some of them have even had to buy it on credit.

The government has said more than 300,000 hectares of farmland have been affected by the drought across the country, and that it would distribute 20,000 tons of free rice, worth Rp 60 billion (US$7.5 billion), and launch a labor-intensive program for some 250,000 farmers hit by drought.

West Java was the worst to suffer from the drought, which affected more than 203,000 hectares, or 15 percent of approximately 927,000 hectares of rice field in the province.

Head of the West Java agriculture office Dady Mulyadi said crop failure had affected up to 61,000 hectares, adding that the nationwide figure was around Rp 90,000 hectares of farmland.

The failure had caused more than Rp 52 billion in losses to farmers in West Java, he said.

Dady said the drought threatened around 2,034 farmers with food shortages in several parts of the province -- Cirebon, Indramayu, Subang, Majalengka, Bandung, Ciamis and Cianjur. Cianjur is known as one of the largest rice producers for West Java and Jakarta.

He said West Java, which contributes 24 percent of the nation's rice supplies, targeted 9.4 million tons of rice this year.

"However, the target will not be achieved because the farmland hit by crop failure should potentially have produced more than 300,000 tons of unhusked rice," Dady added.

Meanwhile, the Cirebon and Indramyu administrations urged the central government to help address the serious impact of the drought in their regions.

"We don't have the capability to shoulder alone the burden of local people affected by the drought. We badly need help from the central and provincial governments," Indramayu Regent M.S. Syafiuddin said.

A similar complaint was raised by deputy Cirebon Regent Dedu Supardi, who said the central government should be more responsive in coping with the problems caused by the drought.

Cirebon agriculture office head Sathori Djuhaeri said crop failure had caused suffering to at least 31,533 farmers in the city, adding that the worst-hit area was Kapetakan subdistrict, where all 2,739 hectares of farmland had failed to produce a harvest.

In West Java, the drought spread to more than 20 regencies, affecting 19,000 hectares of farmland.

Senior official at the East Java agriculture office Suwardoyo Endro Sutopo said on Wednesday the affected regencies were Bangkalan, Sampang, Sumenep, Pasuruan, Probolinggo, Situbondo, Bondowoso, Madiun, Magetan, Ngawi, Ponorogo, Pacitan, Banyuwangi, Gresik, Sidoarjo, Mojokerto, Jombang, Kediri, Blitar, Trenggalek, Bojonegoro, Lamongan and Tuban.

He said the drought had been made worse by a lack of water sources near the affected farmland and serious deforestation, blamed on illegal logging and land clearance.