Central Java refugees brace for more floods
The Jakarta Post, Cilacap, Central Java
Tens of thousands of Central Java flood victims are living in misery either in temporary shelters or inundated homes amid fears of prolonged floods due to continuing heavy rains.
Meanwhile the death toll rose to three on Wednesday with the discovery of the body of 23-year-old Salim in Jitung village, Kebumen Regency. The other two victims, Wartiyen, a woman from a Banyumas village, and Matbera from a Cilacap village, drowned on Tuesday when they braved the flashfloods to save their belongings.
Floods are expected to worsen and spread to other areas due to continuing downpours, the overflowing of the Serayu, Bodo, Cibereum, Cimeneng and Citanduy rivers and the continued burst of some riverbanks.
Residents in Cilacap's Sidareja and Kawunganten districts are said to be the hardest hit by the floods. They have received donations from the authorities. Meanwhile, thousands of others are relying on what they could salvage from the disaster and on food donated by local philanthropists.
Cilacap Regent Herry Tabri donated on Wednesday 700 kilograms of rice, 135 boxes of instant noodles, 60 kg of salted fish and 70 kg of cooking oil when he and his staff members visited thousands of victims who were crowded into makeshift shelters in the Sidareja and Kawunganten districts.
Various institutions in Cilacap Regency have set up communal kitchens and health posts in a number of temporary shelters.
"This has been the third and largest flood to hit our village this month," said 40-year-old Saliman from Sikampuh village in Cilacap.
He said 250 families had fled their homes and were staying at a temporary shelter at the village office. "We haven't received any food yet from the local administration," he added.
His neighbor Darisem, 38, agreed, saying "we are now living in a nightmare. Our only five sacks of paddy were washed away in the flood and many of our chickens drowned."
Darisem said that she could not save most of her belongings, "because the current was so strong and the flood struck so quickly".
A regency official said that at least 100 families living in a remote part of the village were trapped because their hamlet was far from the road. The only path linking their hamlet to the road was inundated with more than one meter of water.
The authorities need life rafts to evacuate the villagers, while 20 lifeboats owned by the regency administration were being used to evacuate victims in the worst hit districts of Kawunganten and Sidareja.
Cilacap Regency spokesman Gatot Arif said that floods had spread from five districts the previous day to 11. There are 23 districts in the regency.
The local administration is calculating the total loss caused by the disaster, but a temporary evaluation in some districts has estimated losses at some Rp 450 million (US$45,000).
Besides a buildup of silt in the rivers, the local administration has also blamed illegal logging and the destruction of forests as causes for the flooding, which was said to be the worst in the past several years.
Data from state forestry company Perhutani revealed that some 200 hectares of forest had been destroyed.
In Kebumen, 17,000 people fled their flooded homes. Some 9,000 of them are sheltering in local administration offices while 8,000 are living in makeshift tents along nearby riverbanks.
Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno, accompanied by Kebumen Regent Rustriningsih, paid a visit to Puring district and donated Rp 300 million in cash and 30 tons of rice to the victims.
Soenarno told the media during the visit that the ministry had allocated Rp 70 billion from foreign aid for a project to dredge the Serayu, Bogowonto and other rivers in Central Java.
However, the project, which will take between three and four years, will start early next year.
Incessant rains have also forced 170 people to leave their homes in two villages in the Purworejo regency over fears of landslides. They fled their villages after noticing cracks in the ground in some areas which are vulnerable to landslides.