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)