Drought Hits 169 Villages in East Java

Tulungagung (Antara East Java) - Tulungagung, E Java, Sept 16 (Antara) - The East Java Regional Disaster  Control Agency (BPBD) said at least 169 villages in the provinces have been hit by drought and crisis in clean water supply this year.

"We received the reports from all district offices of BPBD in East Java," head of the East Java BPBD  Sudarmawan said here on Friday.

The number is easily larger as based on past records 422 villages in the province are vulnerable to drought disaster, Sudarmawan said.

In a bid to forestall the threat of disaster, the East Java BPBD has continued to maintain synergy with district BPBDs, he said.

"As we did in the past in coping with the impact of the lengthy drought we have provided subsidy for the provision of clean water  in the villages," he said.

In addition, BPBD  and its district offices have been ready with short and long term plans to cope with the impact of long dry season, such as by building artesian wells and  water reserves, he said.

He said worst dry season is yet to come by the end of September, 2017, that the impact could be more disastrous.

The Meteorology , Climatology  and Geophysics agency has predicted that rain would begin to fall early October.

"Rain fall is expected early October in the southern part of East Java  and by November most of the province would enter the rainy season," he said.

In Tulungagung , the BPBD recorded 19 villages  in six sub-districts are prone to lengthy drought and crisis  in clean water supply.

In Jakarta Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said there would be no shortage in food supply in the country at least until January, 2018 despite severe drought reported in various areas.

Planting in rice fields had been expanded to 1 million hectares from normally 500,000 hectares to guarantee supply of the staple food  in the country, the minister said.

For three years the government has taken preparations to forestall   shortage in the supply of the staple food such as by repairing irrigation system  and dams  and  building water reserves.  (*)