Climate agency urges govt to prepare to face drought

Jakarta, July 30 (Antara) - The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has urged the government to take serious anticipatory measures, to face the drought triggered by the El Nino phenomenon predicted to hit parts of Indonesia. 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, Head of the BMKG Andi Eka Sakya said here on Thursday. Agricultural land and forests are the most likely to feel the impacts of El Nino, which significantly reduces precipitation and leads to a decline in water reserves and drought. However, a positive impact of El Nino is that it triggers the production of chlorophyll in oceans due to a drop in the temperature of the water. This condition enriches food resources and increases the population of fish and salt production significantly. "So adequate number of cold storage units must be provided to keep aquaculture products," he added. In addition, the government has forecast that the drought most likely to be triggered by the El Nino phenomenon will last till November this year. To deal with the drought, the ministry has distributed at least 82,000 water pumps to farmers throughout the country. Some 198 thousand hectares of land across Indonesia are prone to face drought every year.