Floods cause further damage in Riau province
Floods cause further damage in Riau province
JAKARTA (JP): Flooding in the Indragiri Hulu regency in Riau province has caused further damage.
Y. Kadar Sulaiman, a flood control officer with the Indragiri Hulu administration, said yesterday that incidents of damage had increased since previous day.
"Floods have submerged 171 villages in Indragiri Hulu regency alone," Sulaiman told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.
He said that the flood had damaged 9,808 houses, 154 schools, 174 mosques, and 52 bridges.
Sulaiman said that it had also devastated 669.3 hectares of rice fields and 727 hectares of non-staple food crops.
As of yesterday afternoon 13,518 residents had been evacuated from the flood-stricken areas, he said.
Previous reports had said the floods had submerged 159 villages, damaged 9,456 houses, 145 schools, 152 mosques, 21 bridges, and 1,000 hectares of rice and non-staple food crops.
Sulaiman said the floods had caused the death of 14,335 chickens, 420 goats, two buffaloes, and 19 cows.
He estimated that the flooding, which began last week, had caused material damage in the order of Rp 6 billion (US$2.7 million).
Sulaiman said the flood water in the areas close to the upper course of the Indragiri river had receded, but that the water level in the areas close to the lower course of the river had risen.
More floods
Meanwhile rivers in the Sawahlunto Sijunjung regency, West Sumatra, had subsided to normal levels, Regent Ruslan Zeint said yesterday.
A day earlier, the water reached five meters above the normal level.
He told the Post that the flooding had been caused by the overflow of the Batang Palaki river, about 175 kilometers east of Padang, the provincial capital. It has inundated 20 hectares of rice fields and damaged 18 irrigation waterwheels, he said.
Ruslan said that the flooding had also damaged three elementary school buildings, 49 houses and two bridges.
In West Java the situation in Cirebon remained stable over the weekend.
Rosyid, a staff at the Lemahabang subdistrict, said no rice fields or houses had been affected by the floods.
He said that rescue workers were still looking for two of 11 people reported missing in the Cimanis river. Nine people have been saved from the overflowing river and are in good health, Rosyid said.
He said the 11 people were carried away by the rapid current while trying to cross the river on Tuesday last week.
In Serang, West Java, a heavy downpour over the weekend submerged some rice fields in the eastern part of the regency, Antara reported.
The level of the Ciujung river, the largest river in Serang, has risen but is still within the normal range.
However, sand collectors, who dredge and gather sand in the river, have had to suspend their activities because of the rising water level.
In Central Java a heavy downpour over the weekend caused the level of several rivers to rise, Antara reported.
The Babakan and Kabuyutan rivers in the Brebes regency could not contain the extra water, leading to the inundation of thousands of hectares of red onion crops and rice fields in the Wanasari, Bulakamba, and Tanjung subdistricts.
Meanwhile sources in the Central Java administration said that Saturday's heavy downpour had also increased the water level of several rivers in the regencies of Sragen, Salatiga, Demak, Grobogan, Pati, and Kudus.
Farmers whose land is located close to the rivers, said that the continuous rising of the water would cause flooding similar to that in 1993, which claimed lives as well as damaging crops and buildings.
They said that they expected to harvest their rice at the end of this month or early next month.(imn)