Kuningan landslides cause Rp 4b in losses

Kuningan landslides cause Rp 4b in losses

KUNINGAN, West Java: Last week's deadly landslides that killed
10 people in Kuningan, West Java, caused more than Rp 4 billion
in material losses, the Kuningan regent said on Wednesday.

Arifin Setiamihardja said the losses included the destruction
of dozens of houses and hundreds of others that were left on the
brink of collapse due to the landslides.

Dozens of hectares of farmland were also buried during the
disaster, he added.

Arifin said landslides not only hit Cantilan village in
Selajambe subdistrict, where the 10 deaths occurred, but also
occurred in nearby villages in the subdistricts of Subang and
Cilebak simultaneously.

He said hundreds of residents from Subang were evacuated to
village halls to prevent further casualties.

The disaster occurred three days before landslides killed at
least 21 people in the adjacent town of Garut on Jan. 28.

Officials in West Java and local environmental experts have
blamed those landslides on state-owned forestry company PT
Perhutani, which is accused of failing to stop rampant
deforestation from illegal logging. --Antara