Drought mitigation participatory at Pinang Luar Lowland, West Borneo (Indonesia)

Civil Engineering Department, Tanjungpura University, 78124 Pontianak, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: hennyherawati@civil.untan.ac.id

Abstract

Indonesia is a tropical country with 2 seasons, the rainy season and the dry season. In the rainy season, flood can occur causing a disaster due to excess water. But in the dry season it happens to prolonged drought cannot fulfilll the society needs as decent life. In the areas of the downstream of Kapuas River, the impact of the drought is the intrusion salinity. Where as agricultural land as Pinang Luar lowland agitated of drought that leads to crop failure. This study will be conducted by qualitative descriptive analysis of survey results at Kapuas downstream area which is Pinang Luar tidal lowland. As the result of this research is mitigation of drought can be made bycommunity participatory. For agricultural cultivation, the community has to get involved in some activities such as: (1) conservation ofland and water (2) maintain the irrigation network (3) developing water-saving agriculture, and (4) setting the cropping pattern. And for the mitigation efforts in participatory forest fires can be done by making the channels controlling groundwater levels. To complying the water needs of the community in the dry season can be solve by rain storage ponds, so that the stored water can be used in drought times.