Victims of Flores floods lack potable water: Regent

Victims of Flores floods lack potable water: Regent

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara

Thousands of families in Flores and Belu, East Nusa Tenggara, are
facing difficulties obtaining clean water and are threatened by
numerous diseases since tap water networks and wells in the
regencies have been damaged or contaminated by flooding resulting
from torrential rain on Monday.

The flooding has claimed at least 52 lives, according to the
latest count.

Paulinus Domi, regent of Sikka, the worst-hit area, confirmed
on Friday that most people in the regency and other parts of
Flores Island have been forced to drink untreated water from
streams as the floods and landslides triggered by the torrential
rain have damaged tap water networks managed by local
administration-run water utilities.

"Wells belonging to people living in rural and urban areas
have been contaminated by the floods and landslides," he told The
Jakarta Post by telephone on Friday.

Paulinus said the local administration was collaborating with
the local tap water utility to supply 100 pipes, and technicians
from Kupang were being sent to repair the damaged water networks,
but this would require a considerable period of time.

"Many people are really suffering as they have lost their
homes and they are threatened, especially the children, by
various diseases, such as diarrhea, respiratory problems and skin
diseases, as they have no access to clean water," he said.

He remarked that the situation could get worse unless the
people received humanitarian and technical aid from outside the
island. He pointed out that the local administration was still
facing difficulties in supplying relief as continuing bad weather
was still threatening sea and air links to the island.

Around 1,000 families in Maumere regency are also reportedly
lacking clean water because both the piped water and electricity
networks have been paralyzed by the recent disaster.

Meanwhile, the death toll increased to 52 from 50 previously
as rescuers discovered two more bodies on Friday. They are still
searching for 12 people who went missing in the disaster.

The local coordinating body handling the natural disaster in
Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara, has channeled
financial and humanitarian aid from the central government to the
disaster victims both on Flores and in Belu regency bordering
with East Timor.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Yusuf Kalla
delivered Rp 500 million in assistance to disaster victims in
Manggarai, Sikka and East Flores regencies.

Stanis Tefa, chairman of the local coordinating board handling
the natural disasters, said that in addition the central
government had provided three rubber dinghies and five tons of
rice for Flores while the National Police had deployed two
helicopters to help rescue workers search for victims.

He said the local health office had also distributed 100,000
antibiotic capsules and other medicines to help victims suffering
from diarrhea and skin diseases.

Maxi Wangge, a resident of Ende, was in tears over the natural
disasters that regularly inflicted such economic hardship to
locals.

"Living on an island with unfavorable topography is a matter
of choice, and it is a religious experience that has enriched our
own personal relationship with God," he said.

He admitted he was close to despair as he had lost his wife
and their baby son when a landslide hit their home. "But this
incident only makes me more aware of the consequences of living
on a disaster-prone island," he said.

Flores was jolted by a strong earthquake measuring 7.6 on the
Richter scale in 1992, which claimed more than 2,000 lives and
damaged thousands of homes.

Maxi said the torrential rains had also damaged many sections
of the road network, washed away bridges and destroyed thousands
of hectares of rice fields in Sikka regency.