Perdomuan villagers eat cassave and bananas to survive disaster
Perdomuan villagers eat cassave and bananas to survive disaster
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Constant natural disasters have doubled the misery of people
in the poverty-stricken village of Pardomuan in Deli Serdang
regency, some 60 kilometers south of here.
Rice has become a rariety due to harvest failures since 1999,
so that people in the isolated village now have to eat cassava
and bananas to survive.
Malnutrition has claimed the lives of four children with
symptoms of edema, while 12 others are under intensive medical
care in Pirngadi Hospital, Medan, for undernutrition.
Robert Sianturi, who sent his 3.5-year-old child to the
hospital, said in Medan last weekend that the child had
previously been treated in Lubuk Pakam hospital, Deli Serdang,
but failed to recover.
The village, located some 2.5 kilometers from Pantailabu
district, has for almost four years struggled with near-famine
conditions after a series of harvest failures resulting from pest
attacks and disasters.
Pardomuan is only accessible along pathways running through
paddy fields. Its people live in bamboo houses with coconut-leaf
roofs and earthen floors, with each house measuring 32 square
meters and having only one bedroom. The houses are devoid of
furniture, except for tables and benches.
Elpide Pasaribu, a housewife whose three children are also
being treated in Medan, said Pardomuan villagers had to eat
cassava and bananas while most adults worked in Karo and
Simalungun regencies as farm laborers.
To the village people, rice is a luxury. "We only eat rice
occasionally, when our husbands return home from work in other
areas," said Elpide, whose husband returns home every three
months.
In 1999, the small village with 30 families lost its harvest
due to pest attack. The next harvest was ruined by slugs,
followed by a flood disaster in 2001. This year, the harvest has
again failed due to the severe drought.
Deli Serdang regent Abdul Hafidz, denying the incidence of
edema in his area, said he had ordered his regency officials to
take immediate measures to overcome undernutrition among under-
fives.
B. Sihombing, chief of a hamlet in Pardomuan, revealed that
during years when the harvest failed, local farmers would only
take in between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1 million per season.
"At least Rp 1.5 million is needed for seedlings and
fertilizer, which is obtained from loans provided by
cooperatives. So if they earn less than this amount, nothing is
left for daily necessities," he said.
Asked about the death of the four children, he explained that
physicians had refused to come to Pardomuan as it lacked
electricity and was difficult to reach. The village had even been
skipped in the recent immunization campaign.
Fatni Sulani, head of the North Sumatra health office, claimed
the lack of health services in Pardomuan was due to the absence
of reports on poor families and under-fives there.
After an inspection of the village last weekend, the health
office set a schedule for weekly visits by a medical team to the
remote district.