BPBD: 100 Flood-Displaced Households in Agam Have Returned Home on Thursday

The Agam Regency Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) in West Sumatra stated that 100 family heads who were displaced by flooding in Jorong Labuah, Nagari (Village) Sungai Batang, Tanjung Raya Subdistrict, have returned to their homes on Thursday morning. “100 households have returned home after the floodwaters receded on Thursday (2/4) morning,” said the Head of BPBD Agam, Rahmat Lasmono, in Lubuk Basung on Thursday. He explained that the 100 households, totalling 300 people, had evacuated to residents’ homes and relatives’ places after the flood struck the area due to high rainfall on Wednesday (1/4) around 5:30 PM WIB. “This is a recurring flood disaster when rainfall is sufficiently high, following siltation in the riverbed,” he said. He added that the flood submerged 10 residents’ houses to a height of 50 centimetres. The flood also breached the wall of Labuah Kindergarten in Tanjung Raya Subdistrict, causing minor damage. However, this normalisation is only temporary, as high rainfall will cause rock and sediment material to flow down, leading to renewed river silting. To address this, the Agam Regency Government has proposed building a sabo dam upstream of the river to prevent material from flowing down and to keep areas along the river safe from floods. “We have proposed the construction of a sabo dam to the Sumatera V Padang River Basin Organisation,” he said.