Rain brings little hope for people of C. Java

Suherdjoko and Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Semarang/Cirebon

People in the central parts of Central Java province may be tempted to breath a little easier after much-awaited rain fell on Friday.

The rain started on Thursday night and lasted until Friday afternoon in some areas.

However, the local office of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency asked local people, particularly farmers, not to build their hopes up too high, saying the rain did not mean the start of the wet season.

"The rainfall was temporary in nature and only occurred in certain areas of Central Java," head of the local BMG climatology office Widada Sulistya said in Semarang.

In the provincial capital of Semarang, the rain lasted for around two hours after starting at 10 p.m. on Thursday night.

Rain also fell in the neighboring regencies of Wonosobo, Purbalingga and Purwokerto, Widada said.

"Because the climatological effect is only temporary in nature, the rain that fell was very little -- around one millimeter only. During the wet season, if averages 100 millimeters on average," he said.

"Therefore, I would advise farmers not to plant their crops even though there will be some more rain over the next two or three days. But the volumes will be low," he added.

Widada said that such intermittent rain could fall in a number of other regions.

He said this year's wet season would start in October in the western parts of Central Java and in November in the eastern parts of the province.

Meanwhile in Cirebon, West Java, around 2,000 Muslims, mostly farmers, gathered on Friday for an Istisqo' prayer ceremony to beseech God to send rain and put an end to the current drought.

The ceremony, led by Muslim preachers Abubakar Sofwan Al Hafidz and Munawir, was held under the hot sun in an open field in Surakarta village, Kapetakan subdistrict.

Cirebon Regent Sutisna, his secretary Suryana Natanegara, local military chief Lt. Col. Marsudi Utomo and senior officers took part in the event.

Sutisna said the drought was affecting about 22,000 hectares of farmland in Cirebon, with 10,903 hectares of crops having already failed.

Kapetakan was the area worst hit with all the farmers there losing their crops -- a total of 2,739 hectares of rice.

The regent asked people in all 31 subdistricts of Cirebon to hold similar prayers soon in the hope that God would grant them relief.

He said the devastating drought should be blamed on the "greed" of those who had exploited nature but neglected environmental conservation.

"Compared to the last five years, this year's drought is due largely to the destruction of forests to satisfy some people's greed," Sutisna added.