Sarwono warns of severe grought predicted for 2000

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia should anticipate a severe drought in 2000 which is expected to be as intense as this year's, State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said yesterday.

Sarwono was reported by Antara as saying that data showed that in the past few years, the drought cycle was becoming shorter, from every five years to every three years at present.

"The drought in 2000 is not something that will certainly happen ... but this assumption should be trusted," Sarwono said at a seminar here commemorating the 34th anniversary of the National Outer Space and Aviation Agency (LAPAN).

According to the data, he said, droughts occurred in 1987, 1991, 1994, and 1997.

"The changes in the cycle are related to climatic change caused by the increasing level of greenhouse gases from industrial countries," he said.

He said he would therefore urge industrial countries at the Kyoto Climate Change Summit to be held in December to reduce emissions.

During the seminar, Sarwono encouraged other related institutions to prepare for the expected drought using information from research agencies such as LAPAN, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.

He called on research agencies to share their information with related institutions.

In the past, he said, different data and information obtained by each institution meant planning efforts were often disjointed and uncoordinated.

"The different information prompted a disparate perception of the problems," Sarwono said.

In the case of forest fires, for instance, local authorities predicted that fires would affect 4,000 hectares while a ministry predicted it was 500 hectares.

The problem became clear after authorities used remote sensing technology.

"Many believed that the information could be considered useful only if it was controlled," he said.

"This is why there were those who hampered (dissemination of results of) maritime meteorology research on grounds that they were strategic in nature and could not be obtained by outsiders.

"After the haze problem, hopefully we can make some corrections and obstacles toward the dissemination of information can be eliminated," he said.

This year's drought has caused extensive damage. It not only sparked forest fires that ravaged more than 300,000 hectares of land and forest, causing choking haze to envelop Indonesia and some neighboring countries, but also frightened away foreign tourists and led to food shortages and disease which killed some 500 people.

The government has not yet announced its estimation of financial losses incurred as a result of the drought-related problems. (swe)