Hope fades for finding dump slide survivors
Hope fades for finding dump slide survivors
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Rescuers continued sifting through shattered houses on Tuesday
with little hope of finding more survivors of the massive
landslide that left 48 people dead and 93 others missing.
The mountains of garbage from Leuwigajah dump site in south
Cimahi collapsed on Monday, flattening 70 houses in Cilimus
hamlet in East Batujajar, Bandung regency and Pojok hamlet in
Leuwigajah, Cimahi.
As of 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the time when rescue work was
temporarily stopped, 48 bodies had been recovered while 93 more
were still missing, presumed dead. The search will continue on
Wednesday morning.
TB Heri, the person responsible for recording the number of
victims at the Red Cross post near the Al Hidayah mosque in
Cilimus, said that 43 of the dead were Cilimus residents, while
the remaining five were from Pojok hamlet.
Bandung Regent Obar Sobarna said the number of surviving
residents stood at 223 people.
"Some of them are now staying with their relatives and around
86 are living in a shelter," Obar told Coordinating Minister of
People's Welfare Alwi Shihab and Minister of Social Services
Bachtiar Chamsyah on Tuesday.
The ministers handed over a donation of Rp 175 million
(US$18,800), as well as donations worth Rp 4 million each to
families of the dead victims.
A unexpected disturbance took place when a man jumped from the
crowd and managed to grab the collar of Alwi's T-shirt, yelling
"over 100 people dead, where's your responsibility!". The man was
taken away by police.
Another victim, 40-year-old Diah, yelled out that the disaster
happened because of negligence as "the government did not respond
to the relocation (plan)".
Awan Gumelar, director of Bandung's sanitation company PD
Kebersihan, admitted it had once promised to relocate 114
families in two villages in response to their complaints of air
and water pollution, as well as fear of landslide. "But, we just
didn't have the money," he said.
At a meeting on Tuesday on waste management with West Java
Governor Danny Setiawan, which was attended by Cimahi Mayor Itoc
Tochya, Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada and Bandung Deputy Regent
Eliyadi, the cause of the disaster was not on the agenda.
"The disaster happened, we take it as a lesson. Now it's time
to think of the victims' evacuation and how to deal with garbage
problems in the coming two weeks since the dump site is closed,"
Danny said without giving further details.
The dump previously received around 5,000 tones of garbage
daily from three areas.
Police Comr. Susiyanti said there was little chance any of
those trapped under the mountain of garbage and earth would still
be alive.
"It appears that all of them are buried and it is very likely
that they are all dead," she told AFP. "The situation is still
grave but we will continue rescue efforts while the weather still
allows us to do so."
She added the dump was located on top of a hill above the
homes and heavy rain had saturated the mountains of trash,
causing the disaster.
A bomb-like explosion was allegedly heard by some residents
prior to the landslide, according to former operational director
of PD Kebersihan, Sumardjito, might have been caused by trapped
methane gas produced by rotting garbage.
As rain started to fall again on Tuesday, there is fear of
more landslides. Monday's landslide was the sixth since the dump
started operating in 1992. The worst case was in 1994 when six
houses were damaged, but it caused no casualties.