Jakarta, Ekuatorial – Though some regions have been struck by drought, National Disaster Mitigation Agency or BNPB said on Wednesday (17/9) that this year’s long dry season was still manageable for local governments.
“Local governments are still able to deal with drought in their regions by deploying water tanks, water pumps, and distribute clean water using their own budget. However, BNPB had also prepared Rp50 billion (US$ 4 million) to help local governments,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, BNPB spokesman, in a press conference held in Jakarta.
The funding, Nugroho added, was requested by West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Lampung, South Sumatra, and Southeast Sulawesi local governments to help them tackling the drought.
Besides those nine provinces, BNPB recorded that drought hit a total of 86 districts/cities in 20 provinces in Indonesia by September. Nevertheless, the event was considered as mild dry season and will reach its peak by end of October.
“Dry season for this year is [categorized] normal as El Nino [weather pattern] which was predicted to be strong turned out to be weak so it did not prolong dry season in Indonesia,” said Nugroho citing on Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency ( BMKG) recent forecast.
He said little rains in Java, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and Lampung which led to drought. “But, it will end by October or early November,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that dry season for this year will not bring water scarcity as water dams were still at normal level.
“Based on the Public Works Ministry report in September, from the total of 176 dams, 160 dams are in normal condition, 14 dams suffer water deficit and two are critical,” he said. “Nearly 90 percent of water reservoirs in normal condition so we still have enough water for every day needs.” Fidelis E. Satriastanti