Jokowi Asks Local Governments To Beware Of El Nino, Heru Budi: DKI Has A Lot Of Social Assistance

JAKARTA - Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono said that his party had carried out President Joko Widodo's instructions to local governments (Pemda) to anticipate the impact of the El Nino phenomenon.

Jokowi wants local governments to disburse more social assistance (bansos) to the community. Heru explained that the DKI Provincial Government has also distributed various social safety net programs.

"The DKI Regional Government has a lot of social security assistance. The DKI Regional Government has issued 17.8 trillion annually with 17 aid items. For example, children who can get KJP," said Heru when met in the Thousand Islands, Tuesday, July 25.

According to Heru, the DKI Provincial Government's social assistance distributed is also in accordance with the integrated social welfare data (DTKS) with recipients who come from underprivileged groups.

"This means that everything is based on data. Later it will be by name by address. Yesterday someone asked for heavy assistance, we facilitate everything. (such as) what the central government wants," explained Heru.

Previously, President Joko Widodo asked BUMN and local governments (Pemda) to strengthen and increase the budget for providing basic food assistance to the community as a step to anticipate the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon.

This is because El Nino can cause a number of areas to experience more drought, so it has the potential to fail to harvest.

"If possible, we have a budget for food assistance to the community to be strengthened, reproduced. For what reason, we are facing El Nino which we cannot calculate because it concerns the climate, so it must take precedence," said President Jokowi after reviewing the people's market at Rampal Field, Malang City, East Java, Monday, July 24.

According to Jokowi, the budget for providing basic food assistance must be prioritized because it involves the impact of El Nino which has the potential to disrupt food security.

In addition to strengthening basic food assistance, Jokowi has also ordered regional heads to increase the number of cheap markets in the regions.

Jokowi hopes that the cheap market and basic food assistance will prioritize areas that need more if El Nino has disturbed public health.

Based on the forecasts of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the phenomenon of El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is positive to strengthen each other so that this year's dry season can become drier and rainfall in the low to very low category.

If usually the rainfall ranges from 20 mm per day, this dry season the figure becomes once a month or even no rain at all.

The peak of dry dry water is predicted to occur in August to early September with conditions much drier than in 2020, 2021, and 2022.