Gunung Kidul withers in heat and dust

Gunung Kidul withers in heat and dust

By Heru Sigit Cahyanto

GUNUNG KIDUL (JP): Toil and trouble has long beset inhabitants
of Gunung Kidul in the special administrative district of
Yogyakarta, fighting a constant battle to survive on arid land
and with scarce water resources.

The regency, located 39 kilometers southeast of the city of
Yogyakarta, covers 1,485 square kilometers and consists of three
subregions, 15 districts, three subdistricts, 144 villages and
1,431 hamlets. The population is 729,655, with 140,077 heads of
household. Population density is 491 per square kilometer.

These people live with general problems of steep mountain
terrain, infertile land, poor transportation, limited regional
revenue and lack of clean water resources.

Hardest hit in the dry season is the southern region of
Pegunungan Seribu, whose name translates as "thousand mountain
range".

Conditions have been so depressing that suicide rates are
high.

"People really lack water for everyday use," said the regent,
Harsadiningrat. "Here, there are neither water resources or
rivers, and lakes dry up in the dry season."

Drought and food shortages have been worsened by the dearth of
reservoirs and difficulty in finding cattle feed, which has
forced people to obtain them from outside.

Farmers also find it hard to acquire seeds for agriculture,
because their stock has been sold to cover daily expenses. There
is also damage to plant life through the premature felling of
trees.

In 1991, a drought in this region hit seven 59 villages and
474 hamlets, affecting 195,931 people. The following year, the
drought struck 38 villages and 188 hamlets with 74,172 people.

The local administration supplied clean water to the stricken
areas through 11 water trucks making a total of 44 daily trips.

The local budget for the problem totaled Rp 174 million, of
which Rp 139.6 million has been used.

A short-term rehabilitation program is the maintenance of the
quality of lake-water resources and the provision of rainwater
reservoirs. There are 262 lakes, but these dwindle to four in the
dry season. There are 27,544 reservoirs in the dry areas, and
8,823 family heads make use of those resources.

A middle-term program includes improvement of clean water
services through construction of clean water facilities at a cost
of Rp 57.32 billion.

This will ultimately meet the water needs of 349,973
inhabitants in 96 villages.

A long-term program tackles the problem of overused land
through rehabilitation and conservation.

Efforts will continue but the results are unclear,
particularly for the embattled southern area.

When business tycoon Probosutedjo supplied 100 tons of rice to
aid the local population, he said it might be necessary "to build
dams to reserve water like in Taiwan".

He also suggested relocating villagers closer to water
resources.

Regent Harsadiningrat said earlier the area might better be
utilized as a national park, and residents "had better move to
the north where clean water resources are more abundant".

These suggestions have yet to be studied to formulate a
cohesive program. Until this is done, the struggle of the people
of Gunung Kidul will continue.