El Nino

Nobody has ever seen El Nino, but everybody has felt the brunt of its unpredictable moods, especially in Asia. El Nino is a weather phenomenon, the source of which is said to lie somewhere off the coast of Peru in South America, which a few months ago brought prolonged drought and misery to many countries in this region.

People complained about the scorchingly hot weather which caused the rice harvest to fail in Indonesia, forcing the country to import millions of tons of rice to meet domestic needs.

At that time, every day we looked up at the sky and fervently hoped that rain would come. Rainmakers had a busy time calling for rain through their mumbled mantras until about six months ago when the first raindrops in months fell, heralding the arrival of the rainy season.

Now people are cursing the weather again, this time as a result of La Nina, the reverse of the El Nino effect, because of the widespread flooding which it has brought to many parts of Asia. La Nina means little sister.

In South Korea, floods have claimed the lives of 43 people. In Bangladesh, floods killed at least 13 people and have left thousands of people homeless.

In Indonesia, tobacco plants were destroyed by incessant rain and farmers had to replant their fields with other crops. Samarinda in East Kalimantan suffered four days of incessant heavy rain which caused widespread flooding earlier this year. A distant relative of mine who is a physician in the city had to take shelter in a hotel when his house was inundated.

In China, the mighty Yangtze River has burst its banks and local people have been forced to make temporary dikes along the banks of the river using sandbags. So we must never under estimate the power of El Nino, or its younger sister La Nina.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta