"What we are facing is not a water crisis but just water shortage. The condition remains normal," he said here recently in response to the prolonged drought currently hitting many parts of Indonesia.

Musthofa said Kudus District's disaster mitigation agency has been able to cope with the clean water shortage. "The agency has also been ordered to supply the clean water to villagers who need it," he said.

In the agriculture sector, the impact of serious drought was not observed because majority of local farmers had planted crops, which did not need much water, he said.

"The plants still look green. This is the evidence proving that the areas of Kudus District do not suffer the serious drought," Musthofa said.

The prolonged drought has been affecting various parts of Indonesia during the dry season that the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has predicted to last longer as a result of a weather phenomenon known as El Nino.