SURABAYA: The province faces a double ecological crisis in 2026, consisting of floods and landslides during the rainy season and forest and land fires as well as expanding extreme drought during the dry season.
The East Java administration is stepping up preparations for a worsening drought across the province as crop failures mount and the risk of wildfires grows.
The prolonged dry spell is putting growing pressure on farmers, many of whom are struggling to secure enough water for their crops.
Ahmad Reza, who plants bananas and corn around the Karangkates Dam in Pagak village, Malang regency, said he has been forced to pump water from the reservoir to save his farmland from the drought.
The falling water level has raised fears that agriculture in southern Malang could grind to a halt if rain does not come soon.
“There have been no rains in the past three months. We hope rain will come down soon,” he said recently.
East Java Agriculture and Food Resilience Agency records that drought has caused harvest failure in several regions.
As of Sept. 10, as many as 3,856 hectares of farm land were affected by drought, with 597.11 ha of rice fields affected and 149.94 ha of them suffering from total harvest failure (puso).
Agriculture agency head Heru Suseno emphasised that not all affected land ended in total harvest failure.
“Affected land does not necessarily mean puso,” he said.
He added that the provincial administration has prepared seed assistance so 1,000 ha of puso land can be soon replanted.
East Java Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) executive director Gatot Soebroto said his agency had sent clean water supplies to 20 of the 24 cities and regencies which have declared a drought emergency.
“From our data, we have distributed 8.09 million litres of clean water in 1,690 trips,” he said.
“The distribution covered 115 districts, 188 villages and 249 hamlets with potential beneficiaries of 36,091 families of 138,667 people.”
Gatot predicted that if drought continues until November, 29 cities and regencies in East Java will be affected.
East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said earlier that the provincial administration had been distributing clean water and basic food staples and holding subsidised markets.
The provincial administration also cooperated with the Forestry Ministry and Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in conducting a weather modification operation (OMC) on Sept. 3-9 by dispersing 3,200 kilograms of salt into the air.
“Alhamdulillah (Praise to God), the OMC showed positive results. Based on our monitoring, rains were observed at 11 spots in six priority regencies,” she said.
“Other than OMC, field efforts through clean water distribution, water tanks provision and water sources optimisation are carried out to ensure the people’s basic needs are fulfilled,” she added.
BMKG forecast that the rainy season will only arrive in December, extending the dry season, which has been running since April.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said that as of Sept. 17, there were 15,548 hotspots in East Java with the highest number in Malang regency with 1,887 hotspots.
At the same time, 24 cities and regencies have declared drought emergencies, with six of them in emergency response level and 18 at emergency alert level.
“Drought in East Java is spread in 24 out of 38 cities and regencies. This will affect vulnerable groups, such as elderly, children, pregnant mothers and poor people.” - Jakarta Post/ANN
