Floods kills seven in Riau, dengue detected
Floods kills seven in Riau, dengue detected
Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru
At least seven people have died during the past week as flooding
hit more areas in Riau province, creating thousands of refugees
at risk from deadly diseases.
Four people, three of them children, died after being swept
away by strong currents in the Kampar, Siak Hulu and Rokan Hilir
regencies, while three others were killed after dengue fever
broke out in the Indragiri Hulu regency.
The flooding, which has affected Riau over the past month,
spread to the Indragiri Hulu regency this week.
Fourteen districts in the regency were inundated by water,
affecting an estimated 22,600 families, officials said.
Many schools had been closed due to flooding, while outbreaks
of dengue had been detected in the area.
As of Friday, thousands of houses in the regency were
inundated by water up to three meters deep in some places,
forcing local residents to take refuge on higher ground.
Tarina, a resident from the Rawa Asri area, said flooding had
long been an annual problem.
Similar flooding struck the area in November last year,
destroying crops and leaving the residents, who were mostly
farmers, without income from their vegetable crops, she said.
"I have to rely on money from my husband, who works as a
construction laborer," said Tarina, a Javanese migrant, who lives
in a migrant's complex in the regency.
Tarina said she agreed with the government's plan to relocate
the migrants, as long as a decent location was found for them.
In the Redang subdistrict, the situation was even worse, with
several houses and an elementary school building under three
meters of water.
Rudi Antoni, the school headmaster, said that he would move
lessons to a nearby village hall so that students' studies were
not affected.
The flooding has also washed out roads, completely cutting off
traffic between the Redang and Kota Lama areas.
Riau Deputy Governor Wan Abubakar visited the region on
Friday. He said the flooding occurred because embankments
protecting the area had collapsed.
The area was swampy and not fit for housing, he said.
Repairing to the embankments and relocating the residents to
higher ground, would ensure flooding did not reoccur.
Indragiri Hulu Regent Thamsir Rachman, who accompanied
Abubakar on the visit, said that the flooding last year cost
residents and the government Rp 10 billion (US$1.1 million) in
material losses.
"We predict that we will suffer more material losses (this
season) as Meteorological and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has
estimated that the flooding will peak in January," Thamsir said.
Indragiri Hulu health office head Djasmudin Djalal confirmed a
dengue outbreak had hit the regency following the flooding.
Dengue had so far killed three out of the six people who had
contracted it, he said.