Low on water: Residents collect clean water provided by the local administration on Oct. 13, 2023, in the drought-hit village of Gunungguruh in Sukabumi regency, West Java. The prolonged dry season has dried up wells in the village.(Photo:Antara/VNA) Jakarta, October 31 (VNA) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo(Jokowi) has announced that his government will provide direct cash aid toassist communities affected by the drought caused by the EL Nino phenomenon.
Accordingly, the El Nino BLT programme involves thedisbursement of 400,000 IDR (25 USD) in cash per family, distributed in twostages, with 200,000 IDR each in November and December.
It has a total budget of 7.52 trillion IDR. Thisfund will be distributed to 18.8 million impoverished households.
Apart from the El Nino BLT programme, the government will also extendthe distribution of rice assistance to 21.3 million beneficiary families untilthe end of 2023. This assistance consists of 10 kilogrammes of rice per month,available from September to December 2023.
For the rice assistance scheme, the government has allocated8 trillion IDR for September-November and an additional 2.67 trillion IDR forDecember 2023.
Previously, it has attempted to import anadditional of 1.5 million tonnes of rice to solve the expected poor harvestsituation across the country./.
