Rampant deforestation blamed for Langkat flash flood

Rampant deforestation blamed for Langkat flash flood

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Medan

Government officials have joined environmental activists in
blaming inconsistent forest management and poor law enforcement
as the main causes of rampant deforestation that resulted in the
flash flood which killed at least 103 people on Sunday. Hundreds
are missing following the flood in Langkat regency, North
Sumatra.

"Yes. It's due to unprofessional management. We're not
disciplined," Vice President Hamzah Haz said on Tuesday,
commenting on the disaster.

Hamzah admitted that the blame lay not only with the forestry
sector but also the mining sector, both of which harm the
ecosystem.

Hamzah said that the authorities must not hesitate to take
harsh action against illegal logging, which plays a major role in
the rampant deforestation in Sumatra.

Citing Langkat administration reports, Coordinating Minister
for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said that the flash flood in
Langkat, located on the slopes of the Mount Leuser National Park
(TNGL), was partly due to rampant illegal logging there.

"The (Langkat) regent reported that the flash flood also swept
up logs that resulted in the deaths of scores of people," he told
reporters.

Apart from rampant deforestation, the floods were also said to
be triggered by heavy rains from 10 p.m on Sunday until 1 a.m. on
Monday. Suparwi, the Medan Meteorology and Geophysics Agency
(BMG), revealed that his office recorded 66 millimeters of
rainfall on Sunday, two mm on Monday and nine mm on Tuesday.

The average monthly rainfall in the area is 238 mm.

The agency had earlier warned of possible heavy rains at the
beginning of the rainy season, which started at the end of
October.

The Langkat administration said that the Mount Leuser National
Park had lost some 40,000 hectares of its total of 788,000
hectares of land.

However, environmental organizations have estimated that the
park has lost some 22 percent, or 170 hectares of its land, due
to illegal logging and illegal conversion of the park land into
farmlands.

However the forestry ministry blamed the illegal development
of houses on riverbanks as the source of problems causing the
flash flood.

Koes Saparjadi, the Director General of Nature and Forest
Conservation, said that the Landsat satellite image revealed that
forest around the site where the disaster occurred was still in a
good condition.

He concluded that the flash flood occurred because the upper
side of the Bahorok river, one of five that flows through the
regency, was possibly clogged up by soil due to the landslide.

"The conclusion followed reports that the flood swept up trees
(not logs), so it was not (the result of illegal logging)," Koes
was quoted by Antara as saying.

Koes claimed that his ministry had asked the North Sumatra
administration to remove illegal settlers from the Bahorok
riverbank in 1998, however, several residents expressed
opposition.

He promised that his ministry would find out whether the
disaster was purely a natural disaster or otherwise.

Koes also announced that his ministry has asked the Langkat
administration to close the Bukit Lawang resort in Langkat
temporarily in a bid to prevent more casualties.

The disaster in the resort area is not the first of its kind
in the country in the last couple of years. At least 26 people
died when a flash flood and mudslide buried a hot springs resort,
located around the forests of state-owned Perhutani, in Pacet,
Mojokerto in East Java last December. Authorities had also cited
illegal logging as the possible cause of the disaster.

Non-governmental organizations have repeatedly asked the
government to be serious in clamping down on illegal logging.

Indonesia has lost more than 75 percent of its forests over
the past few decades, leaving only 60 million hectares today. In
the past five years, some 43 million hectares of Indonesia's
forests, or the equivalent of more than half of Kalimantan has
been damaged.

The World Bank predicts that if the current rapid pace of
deforestation continues, Indonesia could lose Sumatra's forests
in 2005, with Kalimantan to follow five years later.

The Indonesian Forum on the Environment (Walhi) raised the
possibility of the role of a controversial road project in the
disaster. The plan to connect Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam to North
Sumatra by road, known as Ladia Galaska, includes the clearing of
land in some parts of the Mount Leuser National Park.

"The project has increased illegal logging activities. It is
true that the initial project is in Aceh, but we must remember
that the ecosystem is like a net. If some parts are harmed, it
would affect other parts," Walhi director Longgena Ginting said.

Earlier, the Leuser Management Unit had warned that the
project could damage between 200 square kilometers to 400 square
kilometers of forest in the park.

Separately, the Indonesia Center for Environmental Law (ICEL)
called on the central government to help local administrations to
tackle illegal logging and illegal conversion of protected
forests into commercial areas.