W. Java not prepared for drought: Councillor

W. Java not prepared for drought: Councillor

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The annual drought that always hits West Java's rice belt
apparently has yet to prompt the provincial agriculture agency
into preparing appropriate measures, councillor Dardiri said on
Thursday.

Dardiri, a National Awakening Party (PKB) councillor with
Commission D overseeing agriculture, criticized the agency for
always being late in allocating special funds to deal with the
annual drought.

"Last year, the agency submitted a budget for procuring
irrigation pumps for rice plants worth Rp 60 billion (US$7.32
million) as an additional budget for 2002, after the drought
hit," he said.

"But we haven't checked if the pumps have helped overcome the
drought. We only found out from newspaper reports that the rice
plants on the north coast had suffered from the drought."

Head of the agency Dadi Mulyadi refuted critics on Friday,
saying that only 345 of 240,000 hectares of rice fields in the
province had been hit by the drought so far.

"Last year was worse, with around 40,000 hectares of rice
plants withering," he said.

Dadi was optimistic that the drought would not affect the
province's target of producing 9.3 million tons of rice.

He also suggested that farmers postpone planting rice until
October.

"If farmers want to plant rice, they must wait until the rainy
season in October. In the meantime, it's better for them to plant
vegetables," he said.

Over 45,000 hectares of rice in Indramayu and Cirebon
regencies have reportedly withered following the early arrival of
the annual drought predicted to last until November.

The situation was made worse with the decrease in the water
supply from three dams in Salam Darma, Subang regency, in Bendung
Rentang, Majalengka regency, and in Jatiluhur, Purwakarta
regency.

Head of operations and maintenance for the Water Resource
Management Agency Iding Srihadi said that Jatiluhur dam's water
supply had decreased by more than 300 million cubic meters.

He added that an indication that the water supply at Jatiluhur
would decrease had already been detected last December, when the
volume of water had fallen by 600 million cubic meters.

An effort last March to increase the water supply through
artificial rain did not produce significant results, as it was
only able to add 222 million cubic meters.

Iding blamed the poor result on the fact that the artificial
rain mostly fell upstream of the Citarum river, the biggest river
in West Java that runs through the dam.

The water level at Jatiluhur dam is currently 98 meters, while
the ideal level is over 105 meters.

Aside from Indramayu and Cirebon regencies, rice plants in
Majalengka, Subang and Sukabumi regencies have also withered.

The Water Resource Management Agency had requested the
council's approval in asking the provincial administration to
provide Rp 1.1. billion to induce artificial rain.

Even so, the artificial rain cannot be created now, as the
process must be undertaken early on in the rainy season, which is
predicted for October.

"If we create the artificial rain now, it's useless because
there are only a few clouds," Iding said, adding that farmers
were urged to ration out the water supply.

Iding said that the drought along the north coast could have
been overcome had the Jatigede dam construction in Sumedang
regency been completed.

Unfortunately, the Rp 7 billion dam has yet to be built, due
to an unsettled matter in regards clearing the land for the
project.