20 Jul 2015

Drought to follow 'extreme' cold snap in Papua

2:37 pm on 20 July 2015

Following 'extreme' winter weather in Indonesia's Papua province, some areas are now facing drought conditions.

Tempo reports that the cold snap claimed seven lives - five children, and two infants - over the first ten days of July.

Hail and snow storms hit Lani Jaya Regency, and now the Head of Public Relations and Information of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Purwo Nugroho, says snow covered potato plants and ruined the crop.

He says the weather also killed livestock and now residents in three different regencies are facing food shortages.

Mr Nugroho says the regencies affected are Nduga regency, Puncak regency, and Lani Jaya regency, covering 21 villages in 6 districts and 20,160 households.