Bojonegoro on alert as Bengawan river threatens to flood

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Bojonegoro, East Java

Residents in 92 subdistricts in Bojonegoro regency braced themselves for a new round of flooding as the swollen Bengawan Solo River threatened to burst its banks on Saturday.

The depth of the river reached 15.32 peilschal (depth of the water per the width of the river) on Saturday. In the past, flooding has occurred when the river has reached 16.00 peilschal.

"If heavy rain continues to fall in the upper reaches of the river, a big flood will occur in 12 districts or 92 subdistricts in Bojonegoro," said Pudjiono, a member of the Bojonegoro administration's Task Force for Natural Disaster Prevention and Refugees.

He said the task force had watched as the river has risen over the past several days. In order to prevent a worst-case scenario, the task force has assigned six personnel to monitor the river 24 hours a day. It has also prepared dozens of tents, a public kitchen and two boats if residents must be evacuated and temporarily sheltered.

Separately, the bodies of three flood victims in the East Java regency of Mojokerto were found on Saturday.

The body of Sayek, 45, was discovered by residents on the banks of the Brangkal River in Blimbingsari subdistrict. Sayek was a resident of the neighboring subdistrict of Kemiri.

The bodies of two other flood victims were found earlier. They were identified as Pujianto, 36, a resident of Kemiri, and Rizki, 2, a resident of Prajurit Kulon subdistrict.

A fourth person, Muchrozi, 17, also a resident of Prajurit Kulon subdistrict, remains missing.

Floods in Mojokerto from Tuesday to Friday hit eight districts, damaging six bridges, 37 houses, 21 dams and inundating hundreds of hectares of rice fields. Some 650 families were affected by the floods, Antara news agency reported on Saturday.

Some 40 schools have been closed because of flood damage.

Hundreds of residents of Kemiri and Wiyu subdistricts have been cut off from the outside world, with the two bridges connecting the subdistricts to neighboring towns destroyed in the flooding.

The Mojokerto administration is building an emergency bridge from bamboo to allow people and goods to travel into and out of the subdistricts.

Separately in Bali, Governor Dewa Beratha presented on Saturday Rp 50 million in aid to victims of storms in Buleleng regency, some 80 kilometers north of Denpasar, the capital of the island. The governor also presented 5.8 tons of rice to the storm victims, Antara reported.

Putu Baginda, the regent of Buleleng, said that the storms that swept through the regency on Tuesday and Wednesday destroyed 590 houses and caused Rp 6 billion in material losses.

Bali and East Java were among several provinces in Indonesia that were hit by storms on Tuesday and Wednesday. The storms caused flooding in numerous areas, including East Java and East Nusa Tenggara, where eight people were killed, hundreds of houses damaged and dozens of bridges damaged or destroyed.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has issued a warning that floods and landslides will continue through the end of the month, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the country.