Ruteng, Vox NTT – The long dry season from April to the present, has brought disaster to residents of Mules Island, Nuca Molas Village, West Satarmese Subdistrict, Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province.
Until now, the village with a total population of 1,543 people has experienced a clean water crisis. In Konggang Hamlet, for example, residents are forced to queue at a well from afternoon to dawn, even in the morning to get clean water.
Since the beginning of the dry season, residents in this hamlet have experienced a shortage of clean drinking water.
To meet the needs of clean drinking water, residents only rely on four wells.
However, due to the dry season, the volume of water in some of these wells is decreasing day by day.
In fact, there is currently only one well that can be used to draw drinking water. While the other three are dry.
As a result, some residents have to be willing to sleep around the well to draw water. Even if you only get turbid water.
This problem is also becoming more acute. Sometimes residents of Konggang Hamlet often complain.
“This is the only well that still has water in it. For 24 hours there must be residents here who draw water, some of them sleep here. To draw water we have to queue,” said one resident, Januddin, to VoxNtt.com, Tuesday, October 15, 2019.
They seemed familiar with the water crisis. Because every time the dry season, the situation is often felt by residents.
“Every dry season, we always experience things like this, but this year the most severe,” said Januddin.
Almost all of Mules Island is Arid
Search VoxNtt.com, Tuesday, October 15, 2019, starting from Konggang Hamlet to a distance of approximately 5 Km to the middle of the desert looks arid.
Grass and trees no longer grow properly. Everything withers and is dead. The color is no longer green but brownish red.
The hills around the residential area and along the Mules Island look arid. Leaving only rock and earth. There are no more plants.
Even the fields that were previously livestock fields because the grass is flourishing, now the code is arid.
Only large trees remain, but the leaves have begun to wilt.
108 Dead Cow Tails
This long drought is not only in the water crisis for residents, but also there are 108 cows in the Nuca Molas village that have died horribly.
Because it never rains, the grass which is the staple food of cows is now dead.
Worse, the beef is no longer consumed by residents. They are forced to burn the charred corpses to eliminate the stench.
The head of the Nuca Molas Village, Burhima, revealed that the results of the inspection by the Manggarai Livestock Office showed that the situation was a disaster.
Because, the death of 108 cows was caused by lack of food and water, not because of disease outbreaks.
That number he said, most likely could increase again after getting reports from other hamlets namely Labuan Taur, Nuca Molas village.
“An interim report from the Konggang hamlet totaling 108 head of cattle died, yesterday only 44 heads. But I have not yet received a report from the Labuan Taur Hamlet, which is certainly a lot later, “he said.
According to Burhima, the total loss of the people of Nuca Molas Village due to their cattle dying was around Rp. 1 Billion.
Need Government Help
Burhima hopes that the disaster experienced by the people of Nuca Molas Village will get the attention of the Manggarai Regency Government.
The help, both for the provision of clean drinking water and health assistance from related office for the community of Nuca Molas Village.
“Our hope is that we need attention for the village of Nuca Molas, especially the issue of clean water and if possible we can conduct mass health checks for residents here,” he pleaded.
At the same time, one member of the Manggarai Regional Representative Council Thomas Edison Rihi said the problems experienced by residents of Nuca Molas Village had been categorized as a disaster.
Therefore, according to him there must be attention from the government to help the community.
The help, both for clean drinking water, mass health checks and help from the livestock office.
“Earlier I submitted a report to the relevant offices asking them to pay attention to the people here (Nuca Molas Village),” he said.
Author: Pepy Kurniawan
Editor: Ardy Abba