Droughts hit rice fields in C. Java

Semarang, Central Java (ANTARA News) - Droughts have hit 19,177 hectares of rice fields in Central Java causing harvest failures on a total of 3,589 hectares of the paddies, a provincial food crop afficial said.

The droughts had hit rice fields in 24 districts, damaging rice plants aged between 10 days and 90 days, Siti Narwanti, head of the Food Crops and Horticullture Protection Center of Cenral Java`s Food Crops and Horticulture Office, said here Tuesday.

She said the droughts had hit plants on rain-fed rice fields where farmers had actually been suggested to grow food crops other than rice during the current dry season.

The drought-hit districts included Semarang, Grobogan, Sragen, Karanganyar, Sukoharjo, Wonogiri, Boyolali, Pekalongan, Brebes, Tegal, Pemalang, Banyumas, Purbalingga, Cilapcap, Banjarnegara, Pati, Blora, Rembang, Purworejo, Kebumen and Wonosobo.

Harvest failures occurred in Sragen, Rembang, Semarang, Banyumas and Cilacap.

According to Siti, the harvest failures occurred only on 0.74 percent (480,000 hectares) of rice fields in Central Java in June, 2008.

Other rice fields were irrigated with water from wells and rivers in an effort to save them until harvest time, she said.

Besides rice fields, droughts also hit 667 hectares of corn fields but the crop was safe to harvest, she said, adding that as the corn was still too young on being harvested, it would only be used as fodder. (*)

COPYRIGHT © 2008

Landslides, floods hitting Ambon since Friday

Ambon, Maluku (ANTARA News) - Landslides triggered by heavy rains
have been hitting a number of locations in Ambon, Maluku province,
since Friday but there were no fatalities.

In the Tantui area, a landslide damaged a house, while in Sudirman
street, the fence of the Maluku Police`s office was broken by a
landslide.

Three houses in the Kanawa area were inundated by mud carrying tree
branches that had come from a nearby mountain slope.

Following incessant downpours, tens of houses in Batumerah village
were inundated by 30-centimeter-deep flood water, forcing local
residents to move their belongings to higher grounds.

Landslides and floods regularly hit Ambon during the rainy season,
and therefore Ambon Mayor Jopi Papilaja has banned house
construction on hill slopes which are prone to landslides.
(*)

The World Bank warned Thursday that an exceptionally high tide could
inundate the Indonesian capital next week, forcing thousands of
people to flee homes and cutting off the highway to the
international airport.

The situation — exacerbated by global warming and the fact that
Jakarta is sinking up to 2 inches a year — could mean flooding will
exceed last November’s roof-high levels in the hardest-hit areas,
said Hongjoo Hahm, the bank’s infrastructure expert.

“This is just the beginning,” he said, as he pointed to homes
reaching a mile inland that will likely be affected Tuesday and
Wednesday by the 18-year semiannual tide cycle. “It’s getting worse
and worse.”

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago nation, is one of the world’s
largest contributors of carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to the
rapid pace of deforestation. But experts say the country is also at
risk of becoming one of the biggest victims of climate change.

Rising sea waters especially pose a threat to coastal cities like
Jakarta, which has sunk at least 7 feet in the last three decades
because of excessive ground water extraction, said Hahm.

Eventually, the government should consider building a Dutch-styled
dike to protect the Jakarta Bay, he said, “but that will cost
billions of U.S. dollars.”

The 18-year high tide cycles occur when the sun and moon are in
direct alignment and making their closest approach to the Earth.
Other factors, such as global warming or El Nino and La Nina, have
made the sea swells even larger in recent years, Hahm said

Study finds Indonesia `mud volcano` collapsing

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - An Indonesian “mud volcano” that has oozed sludge for two years is collapsing under its own weight, worsening an environmental disaster that has displaced thousands, a study said Wednesday.

Sudden collapses of up to three metres (9.8 feet) have been recorded at the centre of the volcano in East Java, the study by Durham University and the Bandung Institute of Technology found.

“Such sudden collapses could be the beginning of a caldera — a large basin-shaped volcanic depression,” the institute was quoted by AFP as saying in a statement, adding that the caldera could be as much as 146 metres deep.

“(Scientists) propose the subsidence is due to the weight of mud and collapse of rock strata due to the excavation of mud from beneath the surface,” it said.

The volcano in Sidoarjo district has been spewing around 60 Olympic swimming pools of mud a day since erupting to life in May 2006 from a gas drilling hole, owned by oil and gas company Lapindo Brantas.

Drilling by Lapindo, owned by the family of billionaire welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie, has been blamed for causing the mud flow, but the company claims an earthquake in the city of Yogyakarta was to blame.

Twelve villages have been affected by the spreading mud and at least 36,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

The mud volcano, known as “Lusi”, has already been an environmental and economic disaster for local people, and study authors say things will get worse as the mud continues to flow and the centre collapses.

“Sidoarjo is a populated region and is collapsing as a result of the birth and growth of Lusi. This could continue to have a significant environmental impact on the surrounding area for years to come,” study co-author Richard Davies said. (*)