Dry Season in Gunungkidul: Central Java

By Barrie | September 12th, 2007 | No Comments

Water, water and water. Lack of it is the routine problem faced by hundreds of thousands of people in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, especially in the dry season. Given the extreme conditions, people are forced to sell their livestock to buy the precious commodity.

A regency in southeastern Yogyakarta, Gunungkidul lies a limestone plateau whose water table lies about 100 meters underground.

In the rainy season, people collect rainwater or get it from lakes scattered across the region. During the dry season, as at present, people have to dig deep into the lake bed to access water.

Hardship for some can be good news for others. Businesspeople make a tidy profit by selling freshwater. They arrive with water tanks and sell water at Rp 80,000 to Rp 130,000 per 5,000 liters.

– Slamet Susanto