Floods continue to hit provinces

Floods continue to hit provinces

Antara, Jakarta

Heavy downpours in a number of parts of the country this week
have caused some rivers in Banten and Riau to overflow and
inundate dozens of villages in both provinces.

Some 2,000 families from seven villages in Panimbang district,
Pandeglang regency, Banten, have been forced to leave their
houses due to the floods that have prevailed since Wednesday.

The submerged villages are Gombong, Pangkalan, Panimbang,
Panimbang Jaya, Sobang, Bojen and Mekarsari. The flooding was the
result of the heavy rains that caused the Ciliman, Soledengan and
Cilatah rivers in the province to burst their banks.

No casualties were reported in the disaster, although the
flood waters swept a resident, identified as Nurhasan, 26, some
three kilometers on Thursday. Eventually, he was saved by rescue
workers in cooperation with local people later in the day.

As of Friday, the flood level had receded to some 35
centimeters from the previous level of more than one meter.

Dedi Nulyadi, a non-commissioned officer of the Panimbang
district police, said on Friday that the flooding had submerged
some 2,000 homes, 565 hectares of paddy fields and 30 hectares of
shrimp farms.

He predicted that up to 10,000 people in the regency were
facing shortages of potable water as their wells had been
inundated by the flood waters and contaminated by mud.

"Almost all wells have been contaminated by mud and it will
take time to clean them out. Therefore, we will need a lot of
water from other regions," he said.

The Panimbang Jaya village headman Ariman expressed the hope
that the Pandeglang office of the state-run water utility (PDAM)
could provide water for drinking and cooking.

"I am afraid the people will get stomachaches after consuming
muddy and dirty water," he said.

Ariman added that people were still worried about further
flooding as heavy rain was forecast to continue falling.

Previously, floods hit Labuan district on Dec. 25 and Cikeusik
district on Dec. 27. The floods also cut the road from Panimbang
to Sobang on Wednesday, leaving some vehicles submerged in the
floodwaters.

Meanwhile in Riau province, flooding was still threatening
villagers living near the Kampar river, with the water still
reaching up to 2.5 meters high in the Pelalawan area on Friday.

The flooding has inundated some 700 homes, dozens of kiosks,
and hundreds of hectares of plantations in Langgam district, said
Langgam district head Zamhur.

"The floods also damaged six kilometers of road in the
district."

The flooding has also inundated villages in the districts of
Pasir Penyu and Rengat in Indragiri Hulu regency, while residents
of Buluh Cina village in the regency were working hard to clean
out their houses after the floodwaters receded on Friday.

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, the port authorities have erected
iron screens at the mouth of its eight water channels aimed at
preventing the port from being thronged by rubbish.

However, residents living near the port blamed the screens for
causing flooding in the surrounding areas.

The director of the local port authority, PT Pelindo IV, Wasis
Subiakto, said on Friday that the company had always removed the
rubbish trapped by the iron screens so that it would not impede
the water flow from the residents' houses.