Transmigration site abandoned

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)