NEARLY 50 MILLION INDONESIANS THREATENED BY EXTREME DROUGHT

 Rabu, 31 Jul 2019 16:03

By Fardah
Jakarta, 31/7 (Antara) - An El Nino-induced severe dry spell has cast a pall over 100 districts and cities in Indonesias provinces of Aceh, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara.
Most parts of Java, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara have not received rains for nearly 60 days. The extreme dry season has impacted 102,746 hectares (ha) of agricultural area and ruined 9,358 ha.
The National Meteorological, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has forecast extreme dry season until September, with the condition likely to peak in August.
The government has forecast that the current drought, which is drier than that of last year, would spread to 28 out of the countrys 34 provinces, and could affect 48,491,666 people and leave 11,774,437 ha areas parched.
A total of 55 district and municipal administrations in the seven provinces have declared a state of emergency in their regions over drought.
The authorities have built artesian wells in several areas and supplied over seven million liters of clean water, out of the 15 million liters to be distributed.
The government has prepared 15,665 thousand liters of water to be dispatched to 1,969 villages, Agus Wibowo, spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), stated.
In the meantime, the Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Ministry inspected the availability of clean water in dams, lakes, and reservoirs in regions, as the severe dry season has resulted in a water crisis.
"During drought, the supply of clean water (for households) is a priority and next is for agricultural irrigation," PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono had noted in a statement on July 7, 2019.

PROLONGED DROUGHT TRIGGERS WILDFIRES ON MOUNTAINS IN JAVA by Fardah

  Jakarta, Oct 18, 2018 (Antara) - Some parts of Indonesia's regions have entered the rainy season, while several others, such as Java and Nusa Tenggara Islands, are experiencing prolonged severe dry season, causing drought, water shortages, and also wildfires.

         On Java Island, the prolonged dry season has triggered wildfires in forest areas located on the slopes of several mountains in Central, East, and West Java Provinces.

         Among the mountains hit by wildfires were Mount Merbabu, Mount Sumbing, Mount Slamet, and Mount Sindoro in Central Java Province; Mount Argopuro and Mount Sadran in East Java Province; Mount Ciremai in West Java Province; and Mount Lawu located in the border of the provinces of Central and East Java.

         Fortunately, vigilant local authorities, supported by volunteers, have managed to control and finally extinguish the wildfires in a relatively short period of time.

         In Mount Merbabu, two fires gutted two different forest areas located respectively in Boyolali District and Semarang District.

        The wildfire that ravaged part of a forest area on the slope located in Boyolali District was put out on Oct 12, 2018 by a joint team comprising military and police officers as well as volunteers.

         Another fire, however, broke out in an area located in Semarang District and razed a forest area measuring 400 hectares. 
   Some 100 people were deployed to put out the fire, according to Edy Sutiyarto, head of the Mount Merbabu National Park Office.

CORAL BLEACHING DETERIORATES CONDITION OF INDONESIAN CORAL REEF by Fardah

 Jakarta, June 30, 2017 (Antara) - The El Nino natural phenomenon, which has increased water temperatures in many coral reef regions across the globe between 2015 and 2018, has triggered coral bleaching in many countries, including in Australia's Great Barrier Reef and in Indonesia.

        The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States has even declared the environmental disaster as the longest and most widespread coral bleaching event in recorded history.

        In Indonesia, the first signs of bleaching were reported in April 2016, and El Niño has impacted Indonesian coral reefs since 2015, according to a report published on www.biogeosciences.net. 
   However, a team of researchers studying Indonesian corals found that it is not the increase in rising water temperatures that caused the recent die-off of most corals globally but rather the decreasing sea level.

        While conducting a census of coral biodiversity in the Bunaken National Park, located in the northwest tip of Sulawesi (Indonesia), in late Feb 2016, the researchers noticed widespread occurrences of dead massive corals. Similar surveys carried out in the springs of 2014 and 2015 found the corals to be alive and thriving.

        The clear link between mortality and sea level fall also calls for a refinement of the hierarchy of El Niño impacts and their consequences on coral reefs, the report stated.

INDONESIANS URGED TO BESEECH GOD FOR RAINS AS PROLONGED DROUGHT HITS HARD by Fardah

    Jakarta, Oct 26, 2015 (Antara) -- Indonesia is now being hit hard by the current prolonged drought induced by El Nino weather phenomena that has triggered widespread forest fires, a water crisis and harvest failures in some regions.

         Early this year, El Nino was predicted to develop in a weak fashion, but by the middle of this year, the forecast was upgraded to a weak to moderate El Nino.

         Now, NASA has reported that a strong El Niño is developing and appears likely to equal the intensity that it showed during 1997-98, the strongest El Niño on record which had triggered massive forest fires, particularly in Kalimantan where five million hectares of rainforest were destroyed.

         This year's El Niño, nicknamed "Godzilla," has significantly reduced precipitation across Indonesia. In parts of East Nusa Tenggara, there has been no rain over the past five months.

         The rainy season that usually starts in September or October, has been delayed most likely until November, or even December, or even till early 2016 in certain provinces.

SUMATRANS HOPE RUSSIAN WATER BOMBERS, RAINS TO END FOREST FIRES by Fardah

    Jakarta, Oct 23, 2015 (Antara)- The haze-choked Sumatran inhabitants' hopes of foreign assistance expediting the process of extinguishing the forest fires has suffered a setback as Australia and Malaysia withdrew their aircraft since the fires are spreading to wider areas.

        The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has recorded a total of 2,742 hotspots of forest, peatland, and plantation fires across Indonesia on Oct 22, including 703 hotspots in South Sumatra, 36 in Riau, and 23 in Bangka Belitung.

       "Thick haze is still shrouding Sumatra, Kalimantan, and parts of Papua," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman of the BNPB, stated in Jakarta on Oct. 23, 2015.

       The haze has also affected Singapore and certain parts of Malaysia and Thailand. Therefore, the Indonesian government decided to accept the offers put forth by Malaysia and Singapore to fight the wildfires.

EL NINO-INDUCED DROUGHT LIKELY TO FORCE INDONESIA TO IMPORT RICE By Fardah

  Jakarta, Oct 15, 2015 (Antara) - The current prolonged drought triggered by the El Nino natural weather phenomenon has hurt paddy harvests in parts of Indonesia as rice fields have dried up, owing to the paucity of rainfall.    
   Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) had forecast a drought warning earlier that would affect regions south of the equator, such as parts of Sumatra, the Java Island, Kalimantan, Bali Island, East Nusa Tenggara, and Papua, until November or December this year.

        El Nino significantly reduces precipitation and leads to a decline in water reserves and droughts. Therefore, agricultural land and forests are the most likely to feel its impact, the Head of BMKG, Andi Eka Sakya had said on July 30.

        To cope with the drought, the government has provided water pumps as a short-term solution. As a long-term solution, the government is set to build thousands of small and large dams, and reservoirs at several locations.

GOVT LAUNCHES ALL-OUT EFFORTS TO MITIGATE IMPACTS OF EL NINO-INDUCED DROUGHT by Fardah

     Jakarta, Aug 6 , 2015 (Antara) - Since last year, the government has anticipated the development of the natural phenomenon El Nino that usually delays the monsoon and triggers a drought in Indonesia.   
  At the start, Indonesia expected weak to moderate El Nino, but now, there is an indication that a strong El Nino similar to that experienced in 1997-98 is developing. 
  In 1997-98, extremely dry El Nino conditions in Indonesia kicked off a wave of large-scale uncontrolled fires, destroying about five million hectares of tropical forests, or equivalent to seven million football fields, according to http://theconversation.com in an article titled "Indonesia at risk from huge fires because of El Nino" published in June 2015.

        Some 198 thousand hectares of land across Indonesia are prone to face drought every year.  Currently, drought has hit 102 districts in 16 of the country's 34 provinces

INDONESIANS SHOULD STORE WATER WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE IN ABUNDANCE by Fardah

  Jakarta, Aug 1, 2015 (Antara) - Indonesia is prone to hydro-meteorological natural disasters, as many parts of the country are often flooded during the rainy season, but in the dry season drought has struck a number of districts, as is happening currently. 
   El Nino-induced drought has begun to hit Indonesia since May, but the impacts have been felt as rivers and dams are drying, harvest failures were reported in some parts of the country, and forest fires hit Sumatra and Kalimantan.

        Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned the nation that drought is forecast to affect regions south of the equator, such as parts of Sumatra, Java Island, Kalimantan, Bali Island, East Nusa Tenggara, and Papua, until November or December this year.

        El Nino significantly reduces precipitation and leads to a decline in water reserves and drought. Therefore, agricultural land and forests are the most likely to feel its impacts, Head of the BMKG Andi Eka Sakya said on July 30, 2015.    

HOTSPOTS AND HAZE RETURN AS DRY SPELL HITS SUMATRA ISLAND by Fardah

Jakarta, July 2, 2015 (Antara)- Hundreds of hotspots indicating the presence of wildfires have been reported in some provinces on Sumatra Island, which is currently experiencing a dry spell, with temperatures soaring up to 35 degrees Celsius.

         Based on the NOAA-18 Satellite monitoring data, a total of 1,470 hotspots were detected across Sumatra Island during the period between January 1 and June 16, 2015. Of the total hotspots, 621 were found in Riau Province.

         The Indonesian government is gearing up to face the effects of the predicted weak to moderate El Niño, which could reduce precipitation by 40 to 80 percent.

         This natural phenomenon will affect the provinces of Sumatra, East Java, Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara, and Papua in particular, from June to November this year.

GOVERNMENT URGES FARMERS TO PREPARE TO FACE EL NIÑO By Fardah

    Jakarta, June 23,2015  (Antara) -- The Indonesian government is gearing up to face the effects of the predicted weak to moderate El Niño, which could reduce precipitation by 40 to 80 percent.

         This natural phenomenon will affect the provinces of Sumatra, East Java, Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara, and Papua in particular.

         The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) and the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) have forecast that drought due to El Niño might occur from June to November this year and affect 18 provinces across the country.       
  "It means that drought caused by El Niño will coincide with the planting season in the dry season, which is from April to September. We need to implement particular measures to prevent the impacts of the El Niño heat wave on crops," Head of Research and Development of the Agriculture Ministry Moch Syakir said recently.

         The prediction about the occurrence of El Niño was also confirmed in June's El Niño Advisory issued by the U. S. Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service.

INDONESIA BRACES FOR DROUGHT AS EL NIÑO DEVELOPS by Fardah

   Jakarta, July 7, 2014 (Antara) - Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has forecast that weak to moderate El Niño will likely begin to develop between July and August, and its impact will be apparent as of August.

          "Although El Niño in 2014 will not be as damaging as that in 1997, and will induce less dry drought than in 1997, the natural phenomenon will delay the start of the rainy season in 2014 and 2015, especially in the eastern and central parts of Indonesia," Head of BMKG Andi Eka Sakya said recently.

          During 1997-1998, Indonesia had experienced a prolonged drought induced by the strongest ever recorded El Niño, which triggered widespread fires.  The greatest loss caused by forest and land fires in Indonesia occurred in 1997, when fires wiped out millions of hectares of forest and plantation areas and caused losses worth US$2.45 billion.

INDONESIA WARNS AGAINST SETTING FOREST FIRES AS EL NINO DEVELOPS by Fardah

     Jakarta, May 24, 2014 (Antara) - Forest, plantation and peatland fires have hit Indonesia annually over the last couple of decades, causing a great deal of damage to the environment, businesses and local people's health.

         In Sumatra's Riau Province alone, forest and land fires occurring only between February and April 2014 caused economic losses worth more than Rp20 trillion (almost US$2 billion), according to data from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB). 
    The BNPB has spent around Rp164 billion, or one-third of its budget, to deal with the forest, peatland and plantation fires nationally.

News Focus : EL NINO'S IMPACT BECOMING MORE REAL by Fardah

     Jakarta, Aug. 20, 2009 (ANTARA) - While people in other parts of Indonesia are sound asleep, South Sulawesi villagers have to queue in the dark of night to get clean water from natural springs. Residents of Mattirotasi and Lainungan villages in Watang Pulu sub district, Sidenreng Rappang (Sidrap) Didstrict, South Sulawesi Province, have been facing a water crisis due to the ongoing El-Nino-induced drought over the past one month. 

     "Every evening, these villagers have to queue to collect clean water in several water springs in the village, because at noon, there is no water in the springs," Amin, a local resident, said. In fact, the drought have affected the villages since the past four months, he said.

Usai Banjir, Bahaya El Nino Siap Menghadang oleh Fardah

       Jakarta, 8/3/2002 (ANTARA) - Rakyat dan Pemerintah Indonesia saat ini masih sibuk menghadapi bencana banjir yang telah banyak menimbulkan kerugian dan penderitaan bagi penduduk.
        Sementara itu, pemerintah negara tetangga, Thailand, mulai gencar menyampaikan informasi kepada rakyatnya, khususnya para petani, untuk siap-siap menghadapi El Nino yang membawa kemarau panjang, bahkan mungkin terburuk dalam beberapa dekade terakhir.

El Nino Masih Ancam Pengadaan Pangan Indonesia oleh Fardah

  Jakarta, 5/4/1995 (ANTARA) - Hujan yang mengguyur sebagian besar wilayah Indonesia sejak empat bulan terakhir ini menyejukkan hati masyarakat, khususnya petani yang telah gagal menuai panennya akibat kemarau panjang 1994.
        Di pihak lain, intensitas curah hujan yang tinggi selama empat bulan terakhir itu mendatangkan banjir sehingga menggenangi ribuan hektar sawah.
        Keadaan cuaca yang "sangat panas dan kering" di musim kemarau dan "sangat basah" di musim hujan, menurut pakar kelautan yang bekerja untuk UNESCO, Dr JRE Harger terjadi akibat pengaruh El Nino.