The Lambanapu Region And East Sumba Regency Will Not Experience Rain For 60 Days, Drought Disasters Have The Opportunity To Occur

Illustration - Dry agricultural land during the dry season in NTT. (ANTARA/Aloysius Lewokeda)

KUPANG - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported that the Lambanapu area and its surroundings in East Sumba Regency, Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), experienced a Rainless Day (HTH) in the extreme long category. "The Lambanapu area and its surroundings experienced HTH with a long extreme category due to not having rained for more than 60 days," said Head of the BMKG Climatology Station Rahmattulloh Adji when confirmed in Kupang, as reported by Antara, Thursday, June 22. He conveyed this related to the results of consecutive HTH monitoring of Dasarian II June 2023 which was updated as of June 20. Adji explained that in general, the NTT region in Dasarian II experienced short (6-10 days) to medium (11-20 days) HTH categories. Only the Lambanapu area and its surroundings experienced extreme long HTH categories that are likely to be hit by meteorological drought. Adji appealed to residents in the area to always be ready to face the potential threat of drought that has caused various impacts, especially the reduced groundwater supply which has resulted in a clean water crisis. In drought conditions like this, he said, residents need to be advised to save on the use of clean water so that existing supplies can meet the needs throughout the dry season. He said, on the other hand, drought also increases the chances of forest and land fires (karhutla) that need to be prevented by avoiding actions that can cause hotspots in open areas.

"Avoid the act of cleaning up trash by burning in an open area, throwing cigarette butts in piles of grass or dry leaves that are easily struck by fire," he said. Adji added that it is important to prevent this fire because in conditions of strong winds, the hotspots will spread quickly and be more difficult to extinguish.