Floods threaten 22,600 hectares of paddy field

Floods threaten 22,600 hectares of paddy field

JAKARTA (JP): Major floods are threatening over 22,600
hectares of food crops mainly in Java and Sumatra as heavy rains
continue pounding the areas, a senior official said yesterday.

Director General for Food and Horticulture Amrin Kahar said
that 2,300 hectares of crops have been lost in West Java, West
Sumatra, Aceh and Riau.

He said the acreage inundated by the floods triggered by
incessant rain would not endanger the targeted seven million
hectares of food crops this season.

"The impact of excessive rains is not as serious as that of
drought because replanting is impossible in the dry season," he
told reporters after accompanying Minister of Agriculture
Sjarifuddin Baharsyah at a hearing with the House of
Representatives.

He said 72,000 hectares of paddy have been harvested this
season and another one million hectares are expected to be done
in March, a month before the current rainy season draws to a
close.

Meanwhile, major floods in Central and East Java due to the
overflowing Bengawan Solo river have not abated.

More than 2,000 houses in six villages in Blora have been
flooded. In the stricken villages, the waters are as deep as 60
centimeters, forcing thousands of people to prepare temporary
shelters on safer ground in case the situation worsens.

Blora government officials said yesterday they have made
available medicines and prepared thousands of sandbags for
barriers against flood water in areas most vulnerable to flood.

The Bengawan Solo river, which starts in Central Java and
empties in the East Java city of Lamongan, about 60 kilometers
north of Surabaya, is prone to overflowing and often causes
floods which inundates several thousand houses in Sragen on the
border of the two provinces.

Like Blora, the Sragen administration has also prepared
temporary shelters and medicines in anticipation of the worst.

The authorities are prepared to evacuate thousands of people
in the stricken areas. Several hundred hectares of paddy fields
have been flooded. In Tanon and Sidoarjo subdistricts, the water
level was as high as 50 centimeters yesterday.

The Central Java government has alerted local administrations
in flood stricken areas to watch out for possible outbreak of
gastric diseases due to the lack of clean water.

Meanwhile, Antara reported yesterday that Bengawan Solo also
began overflowing at Bojonegoro, where flood water has inundated
45 houses and 140 hectares of food crops.

In the West Sumatra regency of Solok, where flood has claimed
at least 10 lives, water levels remained high yesterday.

In an interview with the state-run television station TVRI in
West Sumatra yesterday evening, governor Hasan Basri Durin said
the natural disaster has destroyed 54 houses and damaged a total
of eight kilometers of road. (har/pan)