Transmigration site abandoned

BENGKULU, Bengkulu: Almost 1,500 hectares of arable land made available to transmigrants in Bengkulu has been deserted for almost ten years as the local administration there failed to install an irrigation system.

Antara reported on Monday that the area, located in the village of Tirta Makmur in Lubuk Piang district of Muko-Muko Utara regency, was earmarked for people whose villages were flooded in the controversial Kedungombo dam project in Central Java.

Tirta Makmur village head Sulimin said the transmigrants, who were resettled in the site soon after the dam project was completed in 1985, had grown desperate waiting for the irrigation system.

"All 750 families depended on the rain to water the land, and local administration failed to keep its word on the irrigation system.

"Over the past two years the transmigrants have been leaving for other prospective areas. The once naturally arable land in Muko-Muko Utara has become infertile due to a shortage of water," said Sulimin.

Muko-Muko Utara district head Parizal acknowledged the transmigrants' complaint about dry land.

The local administration has in fact initiated constructing a waterway. However, only eight kilometers of the 20 needed for the canal have been completed. The construction has been halted for unclear reasons. (sur)