Gresik To Dig 1,000 Groundwater Wells Anticipating Long Drought

Gresik, E Java (Antara Jatim) - The District of Gresik Sambari Halim Radianto said his administration plans to dig 1,000 groundwater wells to cope with the impact of long drought in some areas in that district.

"The plan is to build 1,000 wells in 914 villages in Gresik. At least one well in a village," Sambari  said here on Friday.

He said building dams would not guarantee water supply  as even dams would be dried of water under long drought.

He said drought disaster has always threatened the northern East Java district every year, therefore, the district has to rely on groundwater to cope with crisis in water supply.

Chief spokesman of the district administration Suyono said drought has hit Gresik every year, therefore, groundwater  wells are needed to save the people from crisis in water supply.

Earlier the District Disaster Controlling Agency said 32 villages in Gresik were facing crisis in water supply, therefore, needing immediate shipments of clean water.

On Wednesday, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said the ministry would drill more artesian wells to forestall any disaster when the current drought reaches its worst in a number of areas in the country.

"Under emergency situation, the government would drill deep wells," Basuki said after attending the annual scientific congress of the Indonesian Association of Experts in Groundwater(PIT PAAI) 2017 in Yogyakarta.

He said there are around 6,900 artesian wells all over Indonesia including 488 wells for clean water and the rest for irrigation.

Currently  more artesian wells are being drilled in a number of areas known to be prone to lengthy drought  such as in Pati, Central Java (two well) and Sukabumi in West Java (three wells)  with water supplying capacity of up to 20 liters per second.

"We also will drill wells  in Sumbawa, East Lombok and West Lombok," the minister said.

He said it would not take long time to drill a well  and artesian wells could be used to meet household water requirement every year water.

"Process of drilling would be completed  in one or two weeks," he said.

Basuki predicted drought in a number of areas would not be last too long , saying according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics office in October 2017 , rain would begin to fall. (*)