Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said here on Monday that the funds had been drawn from food contingency funds amounting to Rp3 trillion that had been included in the 2011 state budget.
"We have Rp3 trillion in food contingency funds. Only Rp300 billion of the funds have so far been used to cover losses of crop harvest failures and about Rp1 trillion has been used to provide rice for the poor in the 13th stage of the Rice for the Poor (Raskin) program. The remaining Rp1.7 trillion will be used to develop water pumps projects to overcome the drought impact," the minister said.
Besides that the government would also use the funds to accelerate the development of dams. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned that a year-long drought in Indonesia is possible to occur due to the El Nino whether phenomenon.
Of the 16 main reservoirs in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, 10 of them are still in normal conditions but six others are already in the alert status, namely the Djuanda, Cirata and Saguling in West Java, the Sermo in Yogyakarta, the Bili-Bili in South Sulawesi and the Keuliling in Aceh.
The six reservoirs which are now in an alert condition still have water but if it did not rain until early next month, they may become dried up.
(Uu.A014/H-NG)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
