The dry season in Indonesia in the recent months has impacted the society. The Meteorology Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicted the condition will continue until end of September, while rain season will occur in October and November.
According to Dr. Ing. Ir. Agus Maryono, Civil Engineering lecturer at UGM, said drought can actually be resolved by changing the culture and some related aspects. The culture in question is by being prepared against drought disaster.
The culture to “harvest and save” the rainwater has not been adopted by the society and local governments, hence there is no water reserve during the dry season.
"Thus, the movement to “harvest and save” the rainwater needs to be promoted to prepare against drought disaster. Let’s not always depend ourselves on the government," he said in the UGM Public Relations and Protocol’s office on Wednesday (20/9) in a press conference themed Resolving Drought Issues, Flooding, and Environmental Damage.
The solution of "harvesting and saving" the rainwater will improve people’s preparedness against the drought. According to Agus Maryono, this can be done preventively and curatively. If just the curative effort is taken, it shows the unpreparedness of the society against the drought.
Preventive ways to "harvest and save’ rainwater during the rainy season include collecting the rainwater in a catchment tank, draining the rainwater into biopores as much as possible, and making ecodrainage. Curative efforts include finding water resource/spring along the rivers, underground water resource, near the lakes, swamps, irrigation, or drainage.
Agus Maryono believed that rainwater management can improve the environment quality as well as reduce flooding and drought. All of this is expected to be a movement that can empower the society.
"Disaster risk mitigation in drought problem by “harvesting and saving” the rainwater is a real effort to prevent flooding and improve the quality of ground and surface water,” he concluded.