Experts warn of more floods, landslides

Experts warn of more floods, landslides

Yuli Tri Suwarni and M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post,
Bandung/Jakarta

Rampant deforestation and West Java's unstable ground make for
a deadly mixture during the rainy season, leaving the province
vulnerable to landslides, said a geologist a week after at least
30 people in the province died in landslides.

Weather experts are forecasting heavy rain in the coming
weeks, and have warned that the southern parts of West and East
Java and Sumatra are especially at risk for landslides and
flooding.

"Landslides happen most often in the southern part of West
Java," said Surono, a geologist at the Bandung-based Directorate
of Volcanology and the Mitigation of Geological Disasters, on
Saturday.

"Aside from Garut and Kuningan, other areas in the south that
are also at risk include Tasikmalaya, Ciamis, Sukabumi, Changer
and parts of several regencies in Bandung," he said.

Last Wednesday, about 20 people died and dozens of others
remain missing after a river of mud buried at least 121 houses in
the West Java town of Garut. Three days later, a landslide killed
10 people in the village of Cantilan in Kuningan, West Java.

On Sunday, a rescue team found the bodies of 9-year-old Ririn
and 70-year-old Karsih in the village.

Officials said Ririn and Karsih were swept away by the mud,
their bodies being discovered some 50 meters from the rest of the
victims, who were buried under a river of mud that came from the
slopes of Mt. Naga.

The landslide destroyed four houses, cut off electricity in
the village and cut the road to Kuningan and the district towns
of Selajambe and Subang.

In 2002, landslides across Indonesia killed 71 people,
destroyed 965 homes, damaged 1.4 kilometers of road and
devastated 120 hectares of farmland, according to data from the
Directorate of Volcanology and the Mitigation of Geological
Disasters.

Landslides occurred in Sumatra, Java and Papua in 2002, but of
the 71 incidents 51 occurred in West Java. In 2001, 40 of 54
landslides took place in West Java.

The southern part of West Java is particularly vulnerable to
landslides in part because of its unstable ground, said Surono.

Located between the moving Eurasian and Indo-Australian
tectonic plates, the region is home to a chain of volcanoes, he
said.

However, an even greater cause for the extreme risk of
landslides in the province is the unfettered felling of trees,
Surono said.

"The absence of tree and plants roots to intercept materials
causes anything, now matter how small, to snowball into something
big as it comes down from the mountain top," he said.

In West Java, deforestation has been acute. Official data
shows that 50 percent of the province's 971,000 hectares of
forests are in critical condition.

Surono said deforestation in West Java had worsened since
2001. He accused local administrations of neglecting
environmental protection in their efforts to generate local
revenue.

"Without immediate conservation efforts, disasters like
landslides and flooding will continue to happen again and again,"
he warned.

But given the time it takes to replant deforested areas
surrounding villages near mountains, hills and river banks, he
suggested "there is no other way but to relocate the people".

Paulus Winarso from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency
(BMG) agreed that environmental degradation was the main cause of
flooding and landslides.

Paulus and the head of the climate modeling division at the
National Aviation and Space Institute, Mezzak Rataq, said that
over the coming weeks heavy rain would fall on western parts of
Sumatra and southern parts of Java.

"Considering the heavy rainfall within the next one or two
weeks, West Sumatra and regions in the southern part of Java --
stretching from west to east like Sukabumi, Garut and Mojokerto
-- will be prone to landslides," Mezzak said on Saturday.

Several days of rain inundated the houses of some 2,300
families in the southern part of the West Java capital of
Bandung.

In the same area, overflowing water from the Cibodas, Citarik
and Cijelag rivers drenched thousands of hectares of paddy fields
in the villages of Sukamulaya, Haur Pugur, Bojong Salam and
Sangsiang.