Drought hits rice farmers in two provinces

SEMARANG (JP): Many rice producing areas in Java and Kalimantan have begun to feel the pinch of this year's drought which is expected to last until at least the end of October.

In Central Kalimantan, drought is undermining the government's one-million-hectare peat moss land project which is an experimental project to turn arid land into paddy fields.

Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo said that little could be done to help farmers at the site because irrigation systems were still under construction.

"Since the systems are not yet ready, it's just normal that the problem still abounds," Siswono told a hearing of House Commission IV on resettlements.

House members criticized the government for relocating people to the site before water distribution systems were even close to completion.

They said the ambitious project did not include construction of roads vital to transport agricultural produce. Transportation relies heavily on rivers, which subside during dry seasons.

To make the government's dream of establishing the area as a key rice producing zone come true, 3,500 families have been resettled there under the state transmigration program.

Another 20,000 families are to be resettled there this year.

Sarwono said the government was building irrigation systems to irrigate 50,000 hectares in the northern part of the site.

To cope with the drought, each family received three plastic tanks and a water purifier, Sarwono said.

In Central Java, the worst drought hit areas are the Rembang, Klaten and Boyolali regencies where local governments have had to supply clean water to residents.

Rembang regency government spokesman Nurcahyo said yesterday that wells and man-made lagoons had dried up in five subdistricts.

"Many people have to travel quite far to fetch water and others have to buy water from traders," Nurcahyo said.

This is also happening in Klaten regency, where drinking water has become a lucrative business.

In Boyolali, severe drought has affected thousands of people living on the foot and slopes of mount Merapi.

Boyolali regency government spokesman Sugiyanto said the government would soon deliver water to affected areas.

Water levels in Central Java's reservoirs have dropped drastically during the dry season, including in the Grobogan, Kudus, Pati and Demak regencies.

Local residents have taken advantage of drying reservoirs, including the Kedungombo reservoir in Boyolali, by planting rice, corn, soy beans and other crops on the fertile, dry beds.

"We use the dried reservoirs during the dry season for growing crops, sometimes we fail because the water supply rises," Waginem, a woman from Dukuh Karang, Karanggeneng village, Kemusu district, was quoted by Antara as saying.

Kedungombo multipurpose reservoir supervisor Prapto Subagyo said the reservoir had a normal capacity of 590 million cubic meters.

The reservoir can irrigate about 70,000 hectares of rice paddies in the Grobogan, Kudus, Pati and Demak regencies, where rice is harvested at a rate of five tons of dried, unhusked rice a hectare.

The Agency for Meteorology and Geophysics predicted yesterday that this year's rainy season was not likely to start until December, three months later than usual.

Agency chief Sri Diharto also predicted that rain intensities in the wet season would be "light" because of the early presence of an El Nino storm.

Severe drought usually increases the incidence of forest fires.

According to Diharto, it was impossible to conduct cloud seedling at the present because clouds were still too thin for that.

Cloud seedling will be possible in October, he added. (39/01/24/har/pan)