Bandung Regency Emergency Response To Drought Until October 8, 2023

Illustration. A resident crossed the area affected by the dry drought in the Botok Reservoir, Sragen, Central Java on Tuesday, May 25, 2023. (ANTARA-Mohammad Ayudha)

JABAR - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) has raised the emergency status of drought for Bandung Regency from alert to emergency response. The status determination is valid until October 8, 2023.

"Initially we set a standby status, that's why we studied it quickly to raise the status, to status the emergency date starting from September 25, 2023 to October 8, 2023," said Head of Emergency and Logistics Division of BPBD Bandung Regency Beny Sonjaya in Bandung, Friday, September 29, quoted by Antara.

He explained that the decision was made based on the situation of a number of sub-districts and villages affected by the dry season and El Nino and resulted in drought and a clean water crisis.

"Judging from the many requests for clean water assistance from residents and the large number of land fires," he said.

If residents' requests for clean water supply are continuously carried out due to the impact of drought, his party will extend the emergency response status.

"If there is a continuous request for clean water from residents, it is possible that the emergency response status can be extended," he said.

Based on a study on the risk of drought by BPBD Bandung Regency, he revealed that 27 sub-districts experienced moderate risks and four sub-districts with high risk of drought.

Therefore, the Bandung Regency Government has issued instructions to the public to save on the use of water and prevent burning garbage in open land.

"The Regent has made an appeal letter to the region so that the community members are first to save water, secondly they don't burn garbage because most of the land fires are the result of burning garbage at first," he said.