REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Some 4.87 million people in the country were affected by this year's drought, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB). The people had to seek other water sources, and some others depended on the supply of clean water.
"Some people had to buy clean water for meeting their daily needs," a BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho noted in a statement here on Friday.
The drought has also affected the agriculture sector, as farmers had to spend additional funds of some Rp800 thousand to rent water pumps and buy diesel fuel to water their paddy fields. "Some farmers have modified their water pumps by replacing diesel oil with LPG and saved some Rp100 thousand to Rp150 thousand," he remarked.
Drought has hit some areas in Indonesia, especially in the islands of Java and Nusa Tenggara. The drought hit 4,053 villages in 888 sub-districts located in 111 districts and cities in 11 provinces.
"The dry season is forecast to last until September 2018 and reach its peak during the August-September period. Those regions were hit by the drought almost every year," Sutopo added.
Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto asked all the parties to be aware of the possibility of a long drought in 2018. Due to a change in the weather conditions, there can be a longer drought, and we must be aware of that, he said following a closed meeting at the Jakarta Presidential Palace on Aug 21.
He said that the hot dry season has led to forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. "Yes, there are forest and land fires because this is the dry season," Wiranto said.
The government, continued the former Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Commander, had reminded all parties to be prepared in advance. Wiranto said that the case of forest and land fires (karhutla) until August 2018 was lower than that reported in the previous year.
"Compared with last year, the fires are now less, because we were seriously prepared and all of us are 'all out'," said Wiranto, who is also the former Chairperson of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).
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