Agus Maryono and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Purwokerto/Bandung – Serious drought in the past month has forced residents in Banyumas regency, Central Java, to use unsanitary water for cooking, and pushed West Java farmers to the brink of harvest failure.
With wells starting to dry up, some residents near the Gunung Tugel dump in Karangklesem subdistrict in South Purwokerto district have been drinking water from the area's gutters.
Karangklesem resident Darsiti said residents were aware that the water was dirty but had no choice but to drink it. "What else can we do? We're forced to consume water from the gutter," the 47-year-old told journalists Wednesday.
The residents, she said, worked together to dig a well but no water came out even though it was 50 meters deep. "Everything is now beyond our power. We can only hope for a clean water supply from Banyumas regency administration."
Another resident, Wida, said people in her area had been consuming the water for several days and no one had been sick. "We're grateful none of the residents have got sick although the water must be full of dangerous germs and bad for the health," the 50-year-old said.
The drought also has West Java farmers like 54-year-old Damas worried.
The resident of Rancawilis in Majalaya district, Bandung regency in West Java, has been praying that clouds that have been hanging over Bandung for the past two weeks, will finally bring rain.
"I just planted a paddy two months ago and now the water is so hard to get and the rain is still not coming. We can only hope the drought will not last long because the rice price is good now," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
He said that the current price of unhusked rice, at between Rp 2,100 (about 22 US cents) and Rp 2,300 a kg, was better than the previous Rp 2,000 a kg.
Damas said he strongly believed that his young paddy would survive despite the cracked and parched land if water came. Rain is his only hope since his field is located far from normal water sources.
For Damas, harvest time is important because he is only a worker on 2,800-square-meter field that belongs to another person. At harvest time, he earns money by selling his rice and splitting the money with the owner of the land.
Another farmer, Ujang Dinar, was similarly hopeful. His home in Tegaluar village, also in Majalaya district, has been badly hit by the drought, although was regularly suffers floods during the rainy season. "I just hope the drought will not last long," the 45-year-old said.
West Java Governor Danny Setiawan said drought had affected more than 30,000 hectares of rice field in 14 of the province's cities and regencies, with at least 10,000 hectares suffering harvest failure.
As in previous years, the province's rice producers – Cirebon, Indramayu and Subang regencies – were the hardest hit by the drought.
West Java Agriculture data shown that in July this year, drought has affected 4,487 hectares, while in August last year, drought affected 10,000 hectares of rice field.
"I've instructed regents and mayors to activate water pumps to save the paddies," Danny told journalists on Wednesday.
Head of the West Java Agriculture Office, Asep Abdi, however, was confident the drought would not affect the production target of 10.4 million tons of unhusked rice as other rice producers, Bekasi and Karawang regencies, could still rely on the water supply from Jatiluhur dam.