Farmers near a dam cannot access water for their fields

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

Sitting on the edge of a paddy field under the burning sun, a farmer from the remote Gondang village in Lamongan regency, East Java, takes a long look at the dry and cracking soil in front of him. He lifts his eyes slightly to gaze just beyond the fields to the Gondang Dam and its sparkling water.

"We have nothing. If only we had water for the land our lives would be different," said Sukimin, who has a wife and three children.

Sukimin and his family come from Randubolong village in the drought-hit Lamongan regency. They have made no money in four months because the severe dry season has resulted in failed crops.

Just a few hundred meters from where the farmer was sitting is the huge Gondang Dam.

Ironically, the dam does not provide water for the 187 hectares of paddy in the nearby Gondang area, but instead supplies water to other, more distant areas.

Sukimin has a reason to be angry, because he and other villagers in five hamlets in Gondang had to sacrifice their land to make way for the dam in 1987.

"We let five hamlets be drowned for that dam, but after all that we cannot even get a drop of water from it," M. Kramawihardja, who was the Gondang subdistrict chief from 1945 to 1990, told The Jakarta Post.

He said the locals had tried everything they could to get water from the dam, but all to no avail.

"We even went to the Bengawan Solo River authority and sought permission to take some water from the dam, but were turned down.

"Later we gathered money to buy our own water pump, but again the Gondang Dam officials said we were not allowed to take the water. They said we could take a little share of it -- not directly from the dam, but from the sluice outside the dam. But what's the use of that?" Kramawihardja said.

The authorities have told residents of Gondang that water from the dam is meant only for those areas hardest hit by the dry season. And this, apparently, does not include Gondang, which these authorities say can pump water from a reservoir in the nearby Sugiyo district.

This reservoir is meant to be able to supply water to the four villages of Randubolong, Lawangan Agung, Daliwangun and Gondang Lor.

Kramawihardja, who had to leave his post as subdistrict chief in 1990 due to a new government regulation requiring people in that position to be high school graduates, said life had become harder since residents were moved from their original villages. He said that ever since the move, residents did not have sufficient water to farm.

"Every year, we can only plant corn and soybeans ... and there's no guarantee that we will have a good crop. If there is enough rain we can plant paddy, not twice, but only once a year," he said.

"It's been a long, long journey for us ... we have fought so long to get our share of the water and we don't know for how much longer we will have to keep fighting. Will anybody ever care?"