Beware of Peak Drought in August 2023: Potential Infrastructure Impacts

The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) warns of a drought that began in March and is expected to peak in August-September 2023. This prediction is based on data from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

PUPR explains that drought is a condition of rainfall deficit in a certain area over a specific period, which can lead to decreased soil moisture and crop damage.

"Therefore, caution is needed in water usage to reduce the risk of drought," PUPR wrote on its official website.

PUPR lists several infrastructure facilities potentially impacted by the drought. The most affected are 2,300 groundwater points spread across Indonesia.

Other infrastructure includes 1,355 points of national roads, 994 reservoirs predicted to experience drought or be affected, 488 bridges, and 278 public facilities.

Lakes and reservoirs are also predicted to be affected, with 259 points each. The remaining affected infrastructure is shown in the graph.

(Read also: 42 Countries Vulnerable to Drought due to El Niño, Including Indonesia)

Endra S. Atmawidjaja, Expert Staff to the Minister of PUPR for Technology, Industry, and Environment, stated that the priority in anticipating the drought is fulfilling the clean water needs of the community. After clean water needs are met, water will be channeled to irrigation areas or agricultural lands.

Drought, according to Endra, generally impacts water needs in areas with low rainfall intensity, such as East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, Bali, Maluku, South Sulawesi, and Papua.

For these areas, the Ministry of PUPR is building boreholes after conducting assessments of groundwater potential.

"To that end, the Ministry of PUPR has built 37 new boreholes spread across 19 provinces and rehabilitated 25 existing boreholes in 11 provinces," Endra said in a written statement on the PUPR website on Monday (August 14, 2023).

Besides building boreholes, PUPR is also optimizing the water storage function of dams, lakes, reservoirs, and ponds. Endra mentioned 13 main dams being monitored: Jatiluhur, Jatigede, Kedung Ombo, Batu Tegi, Wadas Lintang, Wonogiri, Karang Kates, Bili Bili, Wonorejo, Paselloreng, Bintang Bano, Kalola, and Tapin.

According to PUPR data as of August 6, 2023, the available water volume from these 13 main dams is 3.73 billion m³ out of an effective capacity of 5.52 billion m³.

Endra added that to anticipate drought in agricultural land, PUPR has structurally rehabilitated 412,541 hectares of irrigation networks.

There is also operation and maintenance (OP) work for 3 million hectares of irrigation areas and 923 rivers. Agricultural land is experiencing water shortages during the 2023 dry season.

"This drought is generally experienced in rain-fed rice fields and technical irrigation rice fields from dams that depend on river discharge," said Endra.

(Read also: IMF Research: El Niño Could Erode Indonesia's Economic Growth)