El Nino Index Increases, BMKG Asks People To Do These 3 Steps

The BPBD illustration distributes clean water to residents affected by the dry season. (ANTARA-Seno)

JAKARTA - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) appealed to the public to take steps to anticipate drought as a result of the increase in the El Nino index.

BMKG Deputy for Meteorology Guswanto said that the El Nino index was already at 0.9, so it spread from weak to moderate.

"This means that if this is not taken seriously in anticipation, the impact of drought will be that Indonesia's territory will lack rain will become real. And this needs to be taken anticipatory steps," he said in an online discussion in Jakarta, Monday, June 19, which was confiscated by Antara.

Guswanto said there were a number of anticipations in response to this. He explained that the first step was to save water. That's because, currently a number of parts of Indonesia are still raining.

"With areas receiving rain, some are stored in reservoirs or in reservoirs to be managed properly," he said.

The second anticipatory step, specifically for areas that have peat, such as Sumatra-Kalimantan, can be wetted, through either flowed water from the ground or using TMC, weather modification technology.

"And the last thing that needs to be anticipated again is that if there is a fire, of course, cross-border smoke needs to be watched out for. Don't let cross-border smoke disturb neighboring countries," he said.

BMKG also utilizes modeling technology by utilizing weather forecasts that can predict six seasons.

In addition, BMKG conducts observations via the Himawari satellite and if there is cross-border smoke, BMKG can prove the occurrence of cross-borders.