A diarrhoea outbreak in a remote area of Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua has killed at least 156 people and sickened hundreds of others, media reports say.

Local church leaders feared the toll would rise because of limited drugs and medical personnel and the possibility the outbreak would spread to other areas.

Benny Giay of the Synod of Protestant Churches Denominations said the epidemic has affected 19 villages in the districts of Dogiyai and Paniai in the remote Kamuu Valley since early April but the local government has done nothing to bring it under control.

He told The Jakarta Post that the churches have deployed medical teams to affected villages but they did not have sufficient personnel or drugs.

Brother Budi Hermawan of the Jayapura Archdiocese said three medical teams have been dispatched but could not cover all of the large, remote area.

"The situation in the two (districts) is an emergency, and if the epidemics are not contained immediately, they will claim thousands of lives," Hermawan was quoted as saying by the Post.

He criticised the governor and local government officials for not attending to the epidemic.

The church leaders called on residents of the two affected districts to clean up the areas they live in and boil the water they drink.