A year of grief for Bahorok flood victims

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post/Medan

Adi has been living in a shelter with 350 families in the compound of Bukit Lawang public bus terminal since the Bahorok flood last year.

Adi, 38, has to make do with the four-by-four-meter room that has been allocated to each family. There is no furniture and the quietness of the empty room often makes him cry when he thinks about what has happened since the flood. The deep yearning for his wife and two children who perished in the flash flood on Nov. 2, last year, is still fresh in his mind. The flash flood left more than 180 people dead and 80 missing.

"I often reminisce in this room, thinking of my family. Everything has changed so quickly, and now I am alone," said Adi, who owned a modest hotel in Bukit Lawang before the tragedy.

Now, he is a motorized pedicab driver and depends on tourists for a livelihood. His income is usually not enough to fulfill his needs.

Adi said that even though the Bukit Lawang tourist area had been reopened to the public, the number of visitors was almost nil.

"The earnings from being a pedicab driver is not reliable. I still owe rent on the pedicab," Adi told The Jakarta Post at the shelter recently.

Tour guides are also feeling the slump in the number of tourists since the flood.

Fandi, 24, a flood victim working as a tour guide, said that earnings from tourists had not returned to normal. Before the flood, he could earn Rp 100,000 (US$11.00) per day, but now only gets Rp 15,000 per day, depending on the number of tourists visiting the area.

Besides residents' poor financial standing, Ramadhan activities such as breaking of the fast gatherings are no longer seen. Before the flood, breaking the fast en masse in the small mosque in Bukit Lawang was common.

"Weekly, daily and tarawih (evening prayers) are still held at the mosque, but we rarely break the fast together there. To break the fast separately is difficult due to a lack of money, let alone in a group," said Caca, 38, a flood victim now delegated by residents to arrange matters on victims' housing.

Caca said that almost all flood victims who stayed at the shelter had financial problems.

Most are also unable to send their children to school.

"There are dozens of children here who have been forced to drop out of school as their parents can't afford to pay their tuition," said Caca, adding that he hoped the local administration would help.

Caca said that residents were waiting for new housing promised by the provincial administration, which was promised several days after the tragedy.

The central government provided Rp 25 billion in assistance to the provincial administration to build new housing, which was disbursed five months ago.

"We're bewildered. Where did all the money go?" said Caca.

Langkat Regent Syamsul Arifin said the regental administration had tried to alleviate the hardships faced by the flood victims by reopening the tourist site. "I know they are still facing difficulties. We have tried to help, but to no avail," Syamsul told the Post on Monday at the North Sumatra governor's office during a meeting between the governor, and regental and mayoralty heads.

Syamsul said a team from the provincial administration was doing a feasibility study on land belonging to state plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara II, on which the housing will be built.

"I assure you that the construction of the housing will start next month," said Syamsul.