Drought Kills Six People, Left Thousands Without Water in Indonesia's Papua Province: Officials Report

Drought has killed six people and caused thousands of residents to lose water supply in Indonesia's Papua province, according to reports earlier this week.

Amid the extreme weather event, the Indonesian government sent emergency aid to the province. Papua and other parts of the Southeast Asian country have been experiencing drought and dry spells in recent years, affecting not only water but also crops.

Indonesia's drought is only of the wide manifestations of the global drought threat, which has been recorded in different parts of the world, including in North America, Europe, and Asia. The extreme weather is fueled by heatwaves and the El Nino weather phenomenon, as well as climate change and global warming, according to scientists.

Papua Drought Emergency

The government sent emergency aid to its easternmost province experiencing the drought since June, causing heat-related fatalities, including a baby, and lack of water. Indonesia's disaster management authorities blamed the drought to El Nino, which is associated with rise in global temperatures in the region, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.

There is a total of 17.1 tons of aid distributed to the region, which received instant food, hundreds of tens, and blankets, according to Adrianus Alla, a senior official at the country's social affairs ministry, as cited by CNA. In a reported statement, Alla said storage depots have been depleted already in the towns of Timika and Lapangan Sinik.

Indonesia Drought

As mentioned earlier, Indonesia's drought has affected different parts of the country, including Java, where similar states of emergencies and aids were announced.

Government data shows approximately 92% of the country reported an above-average dry season due to the 2019 El Nino and positive Indian Ocean Dipole or IOD, according to CNA's separate report on Monday, July 31.

A report from the World Bank states that the eastern western regions of Java, coastal regions of Sumatra, western and northern parts of Sulawesi, and southeastern parts of Papua are vulnerable to different climate hazards. These threats include drought, floods, landslides, and sea-level rise.

The World Bank's global risk analysis places Indonesia at 12^th out of 35 countries to be dealing with high mortality risk from these hazards.

Global Drought Threat

As part of the natural climate cycle, drought is a prolonged dry period which can happen anywhere on Earth, characterized as a "slow-onset disaster," according to the World Health Organization.

Unlike weather events such as hurricanes and severe thunderstorms, the forecasting and duration of droughts are harder to predict by meteorologists. Still, some weather elements like heat, humidity, and moisture in a place can serve as a guide.

According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, drought is a state of less precipitation (rain or snow) in a certain place compared to normal and it can last for more than a few months or even longer. Previous studies have shown that drought can last even for years, decades, or more.