Jakarta, July 29 (Antara) -- Several provinces in Indonesia are currently experiencing drought, which leads to water crisis and affects plantations, food crops and rice fields.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency has predicted that the dry season this year will last till October or November.
The provinces feeling the impacts of the dry season are East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), West Sumatra, Bengkulu, Jambi, South Sumatra, Bangka-Belitung, Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and Maluku.
However, NTT is lucky with regard to this water crisis, as a number of reservoirs will be built to help hold water in the region during the rainy season and supply it to the people during the dry spell.
One of these reservoirs is the Raknamo Reservoir, some 35 kilometers east of Kupang city. It is to supply standard water to urban areas and to irrigate around 841 hectares of farmlands in the district of Kupang.
"NTT has considerable water problems," President Joko Widodo said while inspecting the development of the Raknamo Reservoir, which is being constructed in Amabi Oefeto, Kupang district, on Saturday (July 25).
The Raknamo Reservoir is one of the seven dams to be built by the government in this region.
The seven reservoirs are Lambo Reservoir in Nagekeo district, Kolhua in Kupang city, Raknamo and Manikin in Kupang district, Rotiklot in Belu district, Temef in Timor Tengah Selatan district, and Napunggete in Sikka district.
"I participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Raknamo dam in December. So I came here to ensure that it is running well. I informed the governor only yesterday that I would be visiting. I will check its development and that of the six other dams," the president stated.
"(We will) also build 100 small reservoirs, as in Timur Tengah Selatan district where a total of 1,000 wells are being built. When I checked yesterday, 230 of them had been completed," Jokowi affirmed.
Unless water is available, problems in the region will never be settled, he pointed out, adding that the government will provide funds for the development of reservoirs in NTT.
According to Chairisal Manu, the chief of the River Areas Development Planning Affairs of the Directorate General of Natural Resources of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, the central government, through his ministry, has set aside funding worth Rp6 trillion to develop six dams in NTT.
The dams are being constructed to overcome the shortage of water in the face of the El Nino phenomenon, which often leads to a prolonged drought.
Manu added that the six reservoirs had been included in the work plan of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing. Therefore, efforts must be made to realize the plan based on the budget already allocated.
"The design of the six dams has been completed. What remains to be done is coordination between the local government and the River Areas Development Agency of Nusa Tenggara II," he stated.
In addition, Manu admitted that the region still needs some 1.5 million cubic meters of water to meet the needs of the people during the dry season, even though it receives surplus amount of water during the monsoon.
"We have surplus water during the rainy season. So we must store the water and ensure that it does not drain into the sea," he remarked.
Furthermore, the regional government of Sabu Raijua district in NTT will build 74 retention reservoirs to cope with the impacts of the drought and to meet household and agricultural requirements.
"The plan to develop 75 retention reservoirs with funding drawn from the Sabu Raijua regional government budget will be combined with the plan of Balai Sungai II to build seven reservoirs of the same type," Head of Sabu Raijua District Marthen Dira Tome noted on Wednesday.
He added that of the 75 reservoirs planned to be developed in 2015, 25 had been constructed on Raijua Island, while the remaining reservoirs were being developed on Sabu Island.
Tome explained that the reservoirs will hold 3,000 cubic meters of water, which will be used by farmers to plant secondary crops. However, they are not designed to irrigate rice fields.
He also pointed out that the regional government of Sabu Raijua had prioritized the development of the retention reservoirs, locally called embung, as the local people were in dire need of water for carrying out various agricultural and household activities.
"The local people must be provided assistance to utilize their uncultivated land, which has been neglected so far, due to the lack of irrigation facilities. We will provide water by developing reservoirs so that the local people can cultivate their land," the Sabu Raijua district head emphasized.
Therefore, Tome stated that in the current year, the local government had proposed an allocation from the regional budget for the construction of a large dam, such as the Guriola Reservoir, which will be able to hold 450 thousand cubic meters of water.
The large reservoir is expected to be built in Liae sub-district. "As reservoirs benefit people, the government will set a budget in 2016 for the development of 100 dams. So in the next five years, some 50 retention reservoirs are expected to be built. These will be very helpful to the local community," he affirmed. ***4***(T.a014/INE)
EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 29-07-2015 20:34: |
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