Home Affairs Minister Inspects Sitaro Floods, Ensures Handling of Affected Houses

Home Affairs Minister (Mendagri), Muhammad Tito Karnavian, directly inspected residents’ settlements affected by flash floods in Siau Tagulandang Biaro Islands Regency (Sitaro), North Sulawesi, on Friday (10/4). This visit aimed to ensure that measures to handle damaged residential houses due to the disaster are carried out promptly.

During the inspection, he was accompanied by the Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP), Maruarar Sirait, and the Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti. The presence of all three is a follow-up to President Prabowo Subianto’s instructions in responding to the disaster in the border region.

On that occasion, Tito stated that the central government is currently focusing on programmes for recovering basic infrastructure, especially for residents who have lost their homes or have uninhabitable houses. Development focus in Sitaro is strategic given its position on the border line between Indonesia and the Philippines.

“President Prabowo’s programme instructs Mr Ara Sirait, myself, the BPS Head, and everyone to work on handling housing and also improving development in border areas,” he said in a written statement on Friday (10/4).

He continued that the Ministry of PKP has prepared a special scheme to repair houses damaged by the flash floods in the area. In addition to being a disaster response, this programme also aims to reduce the poverty rate in Sitaro Regency, which is still recorded as quite high.

Tito emphasised that this rehabilitation policy is part of the government’s broader strategy to strengthen peripheral areas in terms of welfare and defence aspects. The state’s presence in island regions is expected to increase the sense of justice for communities living far from the centre of government.

“[This policy is an effort] to maintain border areas as a security and defence buffer zone, as well as for people’s justice so that nationalism increases and the state is present,” he concluded.