'Weather forecasts not good enough'

'Weather forecasts not good enough'

JAKARTA (JP): The accuracy of weather forecasts by the Agency for Meteorology and Geophysics is only between 70 and 85 percent, a cabinet minister acknowledged yesterday.

This level is still far below the ideal, which is between 90 and 95 percent, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said at an official celebration of the 45th World Meteorology Day.

"Indonesia should be able to develop technology to improve its accuracy; otherwise all these weather forecasts will be useless," he said.

He said that the government would try to increase the sophistication of meteorological technology so that the weather forecasts aired by local TV stations in the evenings would be more dependable.

Official statistics show that the meteorology and geophysics agency currently has 160 stations throughout the country, whereas ideally there would be 400.

The government is determined to double the number of stations by 1999, when the current sixth Five Year Plan, (Repelita VI), comes to an end, the minister said.

Indonesia was modernizing its meteorological and geophysics equipment, he said, especially that which is used for monitoring earthquakes.

Haryanto said that in anticipation of prolonged drought this year, the government planned to start creating artificial rain later this month in several areas.

The next dry season is expected to start in April. The agency has predicted a long and severe drought that may force the government to import rice.

Haryanto said the government had provided Rp 2.5 billion (US$1.1 million) for the cloud seeding program.

The main purpose of the program is to fill reservoirs vital for irrigation of rice-producing areas, he said.

The program was also premised, he said, on the fact that the climate had been quite unpredictable over the past four years. (29)