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