Regional Heads to anticipate drought

Jakarta, InfoPublik - All regional heads are advised to be ready to anticipate the effects of drought.

"Carrying out the direction of the President of the Republic of Indonesia at a limited meeting on anticipating the impact of drought attended by Cabinet ministers, we ask all governors to pay attention and take necessary measures to anticipate the effects of drought," said Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo in his written statement, Wednesday (7/8). He also iterated that the regional heads must maintain water supply for the community.

"Governors must prepare for forest and land fires as results of drought by intensifying coordination with the regional military and police in their respective areas, given that most of the causes of forest and land fires are ill-intentioned actions of unscrupulous people," he explained.

"They also must allocate funding for disaster and fire emergency response sourced from the unexpected expenditure allocation in the provincial regional budgets in accordance with the provisions of the laws and regulations," he added.

Pursuant to Article 91 of Law Number 23 of 2014 on Regional Government, in the context of fostering and supervising the administration of functions which are the authority of the administrations of regency/city, the President is assisted by the governor as the representative of the central government.

Governors then report on the implementation of their duties and authority as the representative of the central government to the President through the Home Minister. (Reporter: Eko Budiono, Translator: Erik Limantara)