Mitigation Agency provides fund in short term efforts to cope with drought

Jakarta, Aug 1(Antara) - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) of Indonesia said it has set aside Rp75 billion to cope with drought disaster in short term. Head of the data and information division of the agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the fund would be used to help regional offices of BNPB in coping with shortage in water supply in drought hit areas. Regional units of BNPB would need fund to repair infrastructure of water reservoirs and water pipes, provision of water tanks, and to build new water reservoirs, Sutopo said here on Saturday. Earlier BNPB said at least 102 districts in the country are facing shortage in water supply as a result of drought. "Currently drought has hit 16 of the country's 34 province or 102 districts," Sutopo said. The 16 provinces include Banten, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Bengkulu, Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sumatra, South Sulawesi, Lampung, Riau, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and Bali. "The hardest hit are Central Java, West Java,East Java, Lampung, South Sumatra and Bali," he added. The drought has also damaged food crop in 111,000 hectare of farm land . The agriculture ministry said it is feared that El Nino could damage rice crops over 220,000 hectares this year. The agriculture minister has told governors, regents and city major to use the special allocation fund of Rp2 trillion from the state budget to cope with the impact of El Nino