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INDONESIA-FLOODS-DISASTER
Floods in Indonesia kill 29, dozen missing
BENGKULU, Indonesia, April 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Floods sparked by
torrential rains have killed 29 people in Indonesia with a dozen more still
missing, officials said Monday, marking the latest calamity for a disaster-
prone nation.
Landslides and floods are common, especially during the monsoon season
between October and April, when rains lash the vast Southeast Asian
archipelago.
On Monday, Indonesia’s disaster agency confirmed 29 deaths and said at
least 13 more people were missing after days of pounding storms on the island
of Sumatra.
Some 12,000 others have been evacuated from water-logged Bengkulu province
with hundreds of buildings, bridges and roads damaged.
Hardest hit was Bengkulu Tengah district, just outside of the provincial
capital, where 22 people were killed along with hundreds of livestock.
Authorities have set up temporary shelters and public kitchens for the
evacuees.
Meanwhile, a landslide triggered by heavy rain in Sumatra’s Lampung
province on Saturday killed a family of six and disrupted transportation
links to neighbouring regions.
Flooding in parts of the capital Jakarta during the week killed at least
two people and forced more than 2,000 to evacuate their homes.
Residents of Bogor, a satellite city of Jakarta, also had to contend with
14 pythons that were set loose from a private property due to the high
waters.
Six of the snakes — which were as long as four metres (13 feet) — have
been found, but the remaining eight remain on the loose, officials said at
the weekend.
In Sumatra, authorities said that illegal coal mining was partly to blame
for deadly landslides as the practice makes loose soil susceptible to slides
when heavy rains hit.
“Apart from natural factors like the heavy rain,(the flooding) was also
caused by human activity that destroys the environment,” disaster agency head
Doni Monardo told reporters in Bengkulu on Monday.
Activists have long warned deforestation from rampant mining in the
province could trigger a catastrophe.
At least four major rivers in Bengkulu overflow every time it rains due to
environmental damage near their banks, activists said.
“The flooding in Bengkulu was made worse by the severe damage…caused by
coal mining,” Ali Akbar from local environmental group Kanopi Bengkulu said
in a statement.
Illegal mining was blamed for killing dozens on the island of Sulawesi in
March when a makeshift mine collapsed.
Last month, some 112 people died and more than 90 remain missing after
torrential rains pounded Indonesia’s Papua region, triggering landslides and
flash floods.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1220 hrs