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.