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Government braces for El Niño fallout
Worst hit: A woman collects water from a well that is almost completely dried out in Cibuluh village, Lebak regency, Banten province, on Friday
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Worst hit: A woman collects water from a well that is almost completely dried out in Cibuluh village, Lebak regency, Banten province, on Friday. Local authorities have declared Lebak regency a drought zone and have declared an emergency as 95 villages in 61 subdistricts faced an acute shortage of water. (Antara/Asep Fathulrahman ) (Antara/Asep Fathulrahman )
Worst hit: A woman collects water from a well that is almost completely dried out in Cibuluh village, Lebak regency, Banten province, on Friday. Local authorities have declared Lebak regency a drought zone and have declared an emergency as 95 villages in 61 subdistricts faced an acute shortage of water. (Antara/Asep Fathulrahman )
The government rolled out on Friday plans to anticipate drought and forest fires as the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) warned that the country could experience a long dry spell due to a weather phenomenon known as El Niño, which affects temperatures and rainfall.
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said she had proposed to President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo two alternative methods to put out forest fires that would involve a limited amount of water.
'We reported to the President that we will test [a method using] a chemical as an oxygen absorber,' Siti told a press conference after the limited Cabinet meeting to discuss the weather phenomenon at the Presidential Office on Friday. 'Another option is we will use a jelly pack, which will also be tested first at the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park [in East Java],' said Siti, who was joined by Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Soesilo and BMKG head Adi Eka Sakya in the Cabinet meeting.
Siti said that the government also mulled the plan to use an air tractor in water bombing the forest fires.
During the meeting, the President also ordered relevant government institutions to swiftly take action to put out fires in a number of hot spots before they caused major forest fires.
Indroyono said that the government was optimistic that it could mitigate the effects from El Niño and its long dry spell as the country had faced the weather phenomenon before.
According to Indroyono, efforts that had been taken to anticipate the El Niño included the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry distributing 761 groundwater pumps.
When needed, the ministry would also be ready to distribute clean water, Indroyono said.
The ministry has also run checks on main dams and reservoirs and found that most were in normal condition and only five were experiencing a water deficit.
'The Agriculture Ministry has also asked governors, regents and mayors to use around Rp 2 trillion [US$148 million] from the special allocation fund in the 2015 state budget to build small dams, and has prepared 20,000 water pumps and [will build] shallow wells,' Indroyono told a press briefing after the limited Cabinet meeting.
The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) has also been enlisted to help with the El Niño mitigation effort.
Bulog is now working to ensure it will be able to acquire 2.5 million tons of rice in October, following a report from the Agriculture Minister that around 220,000 hectares from a total of 8.1 million ha of rice fields across the country will be affected by the weather phenomenon.
The Indonesian Military (TNI) was also ready to help with efforts in putting out forest fires.
In his opening speech to the meeting, Jokowi said the most important thing was to seek efforts 'to save farmers [and] fishermen, as well as to jointly prevent forest fires resulting from El Niño'.
Experts however have predicted that El Niño could bring plenty of fish to waters along Sumatra's west coast, as well as to waters to the south of Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry could prepare cold storage to deal with excess fish supplies.
The government also planned to enforce laws against those burning bushes and forests.
'We will also start to enforce the law [by prosecuting those who are involved in burning the forest],' Siti said.
According Siti, two cases from 2012 had been processed by the courts, six cases from 2013 were still under ongoing investigation by the Attorney General's Office and nine companies allegedly involved in last year's forest burning cases were still being investigated.
