Drought causes Rp 8.4b in losses in East Java

Yogita Tahilramani and Edith Hartanto, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya, East Java

This year's drought has dealt a severe blow to East Java province causing the country's major rice producing area to suffer losses to the tune of Rp 8.4 billion.

The loss has been caused mainly by a water shortage, ravaging hundreds of thousands of hectares of paddy fields and crops in 12 regencies.

Chief of the administration's information and communication division Suprawoto said on Wednesday that at least 4,440 hectares of paddy fields across the province had been hit by drought, and another 150,000 hectares of rice, corn and soybean fields may go absolutely dry.

East Java produces around two million tons of rice for the national stock every year.

Some 65 percent of East Java's population of 35 million comprise of farmers, including fishermen, poultry farmers and, farmers who grow rice, soybean and corn.

Suprawoto said that the suffering of East Java's farmers could worsen if extra care was not taken, since this year alone some 6.5 million tons of rice had spoiled.

Farmers across the province, particularly those from severely- hit areas like Ngawi and Lamongan have rejected thousands of water pumps provided to them by the administration, stating that the fields had turned into "rock-hard ground".

The administration, however, continues to provide more pumps for drought-prone areas. Suprawoto said that the administration had no other choice.

It had initially thought of working in collaboration with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) to seed clouds, he said.

But the plans were abandoned after BPPT said there was a 70 percent chance of failure, due to the lack of clouds and unfavorable climatic conditions.

"There is only a 30 percent chance of success to produce rain. That's just way too expensive considering that we would be spending Rp 700 million for each shot," Suprawoto told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Conditions could worsen since the water level in several dams in East Java -- which are used to irrigate the paddy fields -- has dropped drastically due to the water shortage, be it from the rivers, ground water or even rain.

"We're afraid that East Java will not be able to meet its rice production target this year due to the drought," Suprawoto said.

Up until May this year, East Java had only produced around 5.46 million tons of rice or around 62 percent of this year's target, which is about 8.83 million tons.

Lamongan, Ngawi and Nganjuk are the hardest hit regencies as the nearby reservoirs could no longer provide water, Suprawoto said.

Selorejo and Bening reservoirs near the town of Malang are among those with sharply diminishing water levels. The reduced water supply from the Selorejo reservoir will definitely affect Jombang and Kediri while similar conditions in Bening reservoir are bound to worsen the effect of the drought in Nganjuk area. Farmers could not do anything in those areas, except to watch their fields turn into plots of dried and cracked ground.

Aside from the prolonged dry season, East Java's water problems lie in the fact that the province receives little water from the Bengawan Solo river which stretches from Central Java to East Java.

"East Java depends on the water supply from the Bengawan Solo, the water gate of which is located at Central Java's Gajah Mungkur reservoir and is controlled by Central Java officials.

"This year we got only 24 percent of water compared to 29 percent last year. This is a problem, because during the wet season they (Central Java officials) opened the water gate to avoid flooding in their area and let the water run through East Java severely flooding areas like Lamongan and Bojonegoro," Suprawoto said.

But when it is dry season, Central Java holds the water by closing the water gate, so East Java ends up with a severe water shortage, he said.

"There's nothing much we can do about that. We can't depend on Central Java anymore in this situation. It's the same every year," Suprawoto said.

In a bid to cope with the problem, East Java will start distributing another 439 shallow water pumps this month to areas worst hit by water shortages.

Each pump is expected to save around 15 hectares of paddy fields, of which one hectare of land can produce around 5.5 tons of husked rice.

"So 439 pumps can save around 6,000 hectares," he said, adding that some 718,000 hectares of paddy fields with irrigation facilities were not included in the water pump scheme.