Flood-devastated resort closed for six months for renovation
Flood-devastated resort closed for six months for renovation
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra
The Bukit Lawang resort will be closed to tourists for six months
so the local administration can rebuild the area after the
devastating flood that killed more than 130 people.
North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin said on Sunday it
would take at least six months to restore the resort, including
an orangutan reserve, in Bahorok subdistrict, Langkat regency.
"We have talked with Langkat Regent Syamsul Arifin. For about
six months tourists will not be willing to return to Bukit Lawang
because of the trauma, so we will use this time to renovate Bukit
Lawang," he told The Jakarta Post.
The local administration last Wednesday banned all tourists
from the area as it focuses on rescue efforts and rebuilding the
resort.
Langkat administration secretary Masri Zein, also chairman of
the local disaster relief agency, said the resort would be
reopened to the public after the rebuilding work was completed.
He said between 500 and 3,000 tourists arrived at Bukit Lawang
every day before it was destroyed by the flood on Nov. 2, which
swept away hundreds of houses and cottages.
"Almost every day foreign tourists arrived at Bukit Lawang.
They generally hailed from Germany, Switzerland, the United
States, the Netherlands and Austria," Masri said.
Rizal said he would ask the Langkat administration to ban the
establishment of any new resettlement areas near the Bahorok
River when the Bukit Lawang resort reopened to the public.
"If people still rebuild houses there, it would be defiant and
stupid. We don't want another disaster like this to take place,"
he said.
Masri said the death toll from the flash flood on Nov. 2 had
risen to 134 by Sunday, with at least 107 people still missing.
Search and rescue teams found only one body on Sunday as bad
weather and a lack of equipment hampered their efforts, he said.
"We lack the heavy equipment to lift the logs piled up at the
site of the disaster. Many bodies are believed to still be buried
underneath the logs," he said.
Masri said rescuers were combing areas that had not yet been
covered by the search operation, including irrigation channels
linked to the river.
The flood that ripped through Bahorok, some 100 kilometers
northwest of Medan, destroyed more than 450 buildings and other
structures.
According to data from the Indonesian Forum for Transparency,
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
and the Lestari Ecosystem Foundation (YEL), the flood caused
about Rp 200 billion (US$23.5 million) in damage.
The losses include the destruction of the Rp 20 billion Rindu
Alam Hotel and numerous cottages valued at Rp 100 million each,
as well as shops valued at about Rp 20 million each, YEL chairman
Sofyan Tan said.
Bahorok is on the eastern edge of the Mount Leuser National
Park and is home to an orangutan reserve popular with tourists,
who also go trekking and white-water rafting in the area.
Meanwhile, a number of orangutans from the reserve are
starving as they are unable to find food, local villagers were
quoted by Antara as saying.
The orangutans were released from their cages after the flood
to allow them to go out on their own and find food.
The government has blamed illegal logging in the national park
for the devastating flood.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar has vowed to crack
down on illegal logging in protected forests, as families of the
flood victims demand justice.
Military officers, police officers and government officials
are widely known to profit from illegal logging, but no action is
ever taken against them.