Floods hit densely populated Java
Floods hit densely populated Java
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Floods continued to sweep through densely populated areas of Java
on Friday, with the worst-hit of the rice belt regencies in West
Java, disrupting public transportation and the supply of basic
commodities to the provinces.
Hunger and diseases such as diarrhea, skin irritations and
lung infections have begun to hit thousands of people taking
refuge from the flooding in makeshift tents. With floodwaters
disrupting transportation, it could be some time before relief
aid can reach these people.
Many evacuees in Indramayu slammed the government for not
doing enough to help them.
"What is the government doing? No officials from the local
administration or the central government have come to check on
our situation? Are they busy with the upcoming general election?
"We are in dire need of food, tents, blankets, medicine. Many
people are running short on food after evacuating their houses
two weeks ago, and many others, especially children, are
suffering diarrhea, skin irritations and lung infections because
of a shortage of clean water," Andad, 52, a resident of
Karanganyar village in Kandanghaur subdistrict, told The Jakarta
Post on Friday.
Most of the evacuees have set up their tents along the North
Coast Highway and are stopping passing motorists to beg for the
money that will allow them to buy food for their families.
"The floods have given us an unexpected blessing. I can earn
Rp 60,000 (US$7) a day, enough money to cover my family's needs
for two days," said Tarminem, a 42-year-old mother of two.
Floodwaters in Indramayu are between 30 centimeters and 1.5
meters in depth, submerging thousands of houses, places of
worship and schools, which have been forced to close since
Monday.
Many people forced to leave their homes in remote areas in
Kerawang and Subang have traveled to Cirebon and Jakarta to seek
work.
Traffic along the North Coast Highway has been disrupted
because several sections of road are under up to a meter of
water, slowing the supply of basic commodities from Jakarta to
Central and East Java. This situation could worsen if the rain
continues over the next several days.
The incessant rain that has fallen on the regencies of
Krawang, Indramayu and Subang in West Java since Tuesday has
submerged 57,000 hectares of paddy and disrupted transportation
networks across the large area.
The head of the West Java agriculture office, Daddy Mulyadi,
said the floods, which were worse than last year, could cause
harvest failures, threatening the supply of rice to Java, home to
almost 60 percent of the country's 230 million people.
"The government has underestimated this year's rainy season
and we predict that the impact of the flooding will be very
wide," he said, adding that the provincial government was
distributing aid to flood victims in the province.
He said the province had lost about 11,000 tons of unhusked
rice in the 2003 drought and could suffer similar losses if there
were harvest failures over the next two months because of the
floods.
Indramayu Regent Irianto said after touring flood-hit villages
in the regency that the central government should help local
administrations in the province build more dams to prevent
droughts during the dry season and floods in the rainy season.
The regent handed out packages of basic commodities, medicines
and tents to thousands of evacuees on Friday.
The heavy rains have also affected thousands of villages along
the coast in parts of West and East Java. Landslides have claimed
at least 27 lives in the Central Java regencies of Banyumas,
Kebumen and Cilacap since last December.
Central Java has established emergency medical teams in
anticipation of possible disasters triggered by incessant rain in
the province this week.
Thousands of residents of Tangerang and Serang in Banten
province have been forced out of their homes by flooding, and
land transportation between Java and Sumatra has been disturbed
with numerous sections of the 120-kilometer Jakarta-Merak toll
road under water.