Research Ministry: Drilling WaterWells Effective to Fight Drought
August 10, 2015
The Ministry of Research and Higher Education Technology stating that making wells for ground water is the easiest method to overcome drought in a number of regions in Indonesia.
Despite there is less and less ground water supply, Muhammad Dimyati, the Ministry’s Deputy of Knowledge and Technology Resources says the method is better than engineering weather to create artificial rain.
“Well-drilling becomes an alternative when there is no possibility of creating rain because there is no seeds of rain on the clouds above the region,” said Dimyati between a research and tech exhibition at Senayan, Jakarta on Friday, August 7.
The Ministry has been cooperating with the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) to prepare artificial rain on some regions. However, the effort is now focused on extinguishing wildfire.
BPPT, according to Dimyati, is reluctant to attempt artificial rain on some regions hit by drought because the agency is confident that there are no seeds of rain on these regions. After drilling the ground water wells, the water will be filled into dams and then distributed to the regions in need.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has recorded at least 102 regencies in Indonesia suffering from drought. These regencies are located in 16 provinces including 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 Tengah, and Bali.
The Minister of Agriculture, Arman Sulaiman, under the president’s instruction, had previously traveling around the country to distribute water pumps as it was considered the best short-term aid to cope with drought.
“I think it’s the quickest measure. In a long term, however, we will build dams and retention basins,” said President Joko Widodo at Hajj Dormitory in Pondok Gede, on Friday, July 31.
Source: en.tempo.co
