Hundreds of hectares of rice field under irrigation dam in Gerokgak District of Buleleng Regency Bali threatened by drought.

“It is due to the dam that had no role in flowed the water and irrigated people’s rice field below it,” said the secretary of Tingga-Tingga, I Gusti Nyoman Surya, on Sunday.

Village apparatus and part of Gerokgak District also said that hundreds of hectares rice-field areal has, for all along, goes through dryness due to the minimum water supply from above.

“In this five month, several hectares rice field had dried already due to the disparaged water volume,” he said.

He said that irrigation at rice field area, all this time is always depend on the dam in Lokapasa village as part of Seririt District area.

“When dry season come, most of the farmer depends on the water comes from the hill area at the south of the village, but if the dry season is pretty long, then the farmer fight over water and the amount of the water volume is not enough to irrigate all land,” he said.

He explained that the condition of hundreds of hectares rice field area, especially those located far from irrigation channel, several times even did not received water at all.

“This cause the first harvest production in dry season drastically decreased and many farmers complained of crop failure,” he said it, in relation with the crop production in that area.

According to Surya, water that goes through the irrigation channel not use merely for irrigation but also for daily use by people around the area, such as for bath.

The irrigation channel built under fund assistance from Japan in 2008 known as Saba Irrigation and become the connecting dam with that at Saba village in Lokapaksa village, Seririt District to Gerokgak Village.

“The density of economic activity in Seririt district area make all waste went through the irrigation channel that will flowed to Gerokgak District,” he said.

It caused lots of waste, some just goes through it but some influenced the water irrigation channel and blockage it.

“In a week, water goes through the channel only three times and comes from the dam in Lokapaksa village. We hope that the government could take notice of this condition and soon take a look at the scene directly whilst find for solution toward this condition,” he said.

News by Antara Bali