Political decisions after floods

Political decisions after floods

Thousands of people are badly in need of proper temporary shelter. They also need food, clean water and medicine.

It is hard to understand why the Jakarta administration has not used the Rp 500 billion in funds that have been allocated for helping flood victims. Caution is necessary in using the budget, but the city is in a state of emergency.

The government should use compensation funds derived from fuel price hikes, for instance, compensation funds in the health ministry for disease control and funds at the disposal of the education ministry to rehabilitate inundated school buildings.

The government should begin to draw up a post-flood program as floods have spread rubbish, which can become a source of disease when waters have subsided. Heaps of stinking rubbish are to be found everywhere.

Floods have caused damage to roads, bridges and farmland. About 20,000 hectares of paddyfields have been devastated by flood water, causing a failure to harvest 305,000 tons of dry unhusked rice, or about 11 percent of the national production of dry unhusked rice bought by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) last year.

The loss of farmland could still worsen, leaving thousands of farmers unable to harvest their paddyfields. Losses will increase unless the government takes brave, systematic and comprehensive steps to overcome and avoid further floods.

We hope that after inspecting flood-stricken areas for three days President Megawati Soekarnoputri will adopt radical measures. Brave political decisions are required to overcome and prevent floods, including the provision of funds and the punishment of corrupt officials who have allowed deforestation and green belt occupation.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta