December (ANTARA News) - Some 260 or 65 percent of Bali`s 400 rivers are losing water due to changes in climate conditions, Governor I Made Mangku Pastika said here on Saturday.

Speaking at a meeting with representatives of various elements of the public at the Provincial Legislative Assembly (DPRD) building here, the governor said the remaining 140 rivers in the province were also about to run dry.

In addition, the governor said, four lakes, including Lake Batur in Bangli district , also had met the same fate as those rivers.

He said the water in the lakes had receded by three to seven meters from their original level.

According to the governor, the receding of the water in lakes and rivers in Bali was even worsened by the acts of several business makers who pumped underground water at a depth of 200 meters.

Pastika said the rivers and lakes in Bali were losing water due to various factors including lack of forest preservation.

Besides Bali, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan has also lost hundreds of rivers over the past two years.

Muryanta, head of the Banjarmasin river and drainage office, said recently that only tens of rivers were currently flowing in the South Kalimantan city which was previously known as a "city of one thousand rivers".

According to 2002 data, the provincial capital of South Kalimantan had 207 rivers, he said.

"Later the number continued to drop and there were only 74 rivers in Banjarmasin in 2004," he said.

He said his office was currently making an inventory of the city`s rivers to get the latest data.

Meanwhile, according to the Forestry Ministry, about 60 percent of the 458 river basin areas (DAS) in Indonesia are now in damaged condition.

"The damage to DAS areas is probably more than 60 percent. We are still making an inventory of damaged DAS areeas," River Basin Management Director of the Forestry Ministry Dr Silver Hutabarat said recently.(*)