[Kabar-indonesia] Sulawesi Flood, Landslide Toll Tops 200; Kalla Blames Deforestation

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Deforestation behind Indonesia's deadly flood: Vice President

Landslides, floods kill over 200 in Indonesia

By Yusuf Ahmad

SINJAI, June 22 (Reuters) - Indonesian rescuers scoured mud-filled
homes for bodies and some survivors suffered diarrhoea and skin
diseases after landslides and floods on eastern Sulawesi island killed
210 people, officials said on Thursday.

A search-and-rescue operation has been underway in South Sulawesi
province after two days of heavy rain at the beginning of the week,
but officials said some areas were inaccessible because roads and
bridges had been damaged.

Another 71 people were still missing in Sinjai regency, the worst-hit
area after flooding early on Tuesday that turned swathes of land into
vast lakes.

The Indonesian military, police and civilian search and rescue teams
have been scouring the affected areas trying to recover bodies and
digging into mud from landslides or left behind by the floods to look
for survivors.

Rahman Bando, South Sulawesi branch head of the Indonesian Red Cross,
said 180 people had died in Sinjai alone and 30 had died in other
regencies in the province.

"We have provided public kitchens and our volunteers are looking for
victims. Several areas are unreachable. Bridges and roads are broken.
We walk in the rivers," he told Reuters by phone from the provincial
capital of Makassar.

Makassar is about 1,400 km (870 miles) east of Jakarta.

Torrential rains and landslides are regular features of tropical Indonesia.

"Water is receding. Search and rescue teams keep searching in homes
filled with mud," said Moersen Buana of the disaster task force in
Makassar.

"Sanitation is becoming a problem. People can't use regular toilets
because water systems are totally destroyed," he added.

Diarrhoea and skin diseases have begun appearing, Buana said.

WOODEN HOUSES FLATTENED

Rescuers found dozens of people on the missing list alive and are
searching for survivors and bodies near the coastline using rubber
floats, witnesses said.

Many villages on river banks in the area were damaged with wooden
houses flattened and concrete buildings covered with mud.

Rampant deforestation often adds to the ease with which hillsides are
saturated and collapse as well as to flooding, since the lack of
vegetation means less ground water is retained, environmentalists say.

Forestry Minister Malem Sambat Kaban told reporters that residents had
cleared the hills around Sinjai for farmland.

"What happened in Sinjai is a warning for the rest of Indonesia if
rain falls more than three hours," he said, pointing out that the
country had lost vast areas of forest to farmland and logging.

Sulawesi is resource-rich, with numerous mining operations, but those
are far from the affected areas, a mines ministry official said on
Wednesday.

"The landslide is in the south where there is no mining operation.
Mining operations in other areas have no problem," M.S. Marpaung,
director of mineral resources in the mines and energy ministry, told
Reuters.

The central government has sent blankets, medicines and sarongs and
instructed local officials to help people move to safer areas.

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Deforestation behind Indonesia's deadly flood: Vice President

JAKARTA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla
said here on Wednesday he believed deforestation was the cause of
floods that had killed dozens of people in South Sulawesi province on
Tuesday.

"I think there has been deforestation at Mount Bawahkaraeng. As the
flood came so unexpectedly, it is an indication that the condition of
the forests there was no longer good," Antara news agency quoted Kalla
as saying.

Kalla, who is also the head of the National Coordination Agency for
Natural Disasters, expressed deep condolences to the bereaved families
of the more than hundred people who had been killed in the floods.

The flash flood and landslides had affected seven districts namely
Jeneponto, Bantaeng, Bulukumba, Sinjai, Bone, Gowa and Luwu Utara.

The biggest number of victims and damage were found in Sinjai which is
located around 220 kilometers southeast of Makassar, the provincial
capital of South Sulawesi.

Up to 150 people could have been killed in the disaster, according to Kalla.

According to local reports, more than 100 people were found dead in
the disaster while around 40 people were still missing.

Kalla said the agency had sent one billion rupiah (about 100, 000 U.S.
dollars) as emergency relief aid as well as food, blankets and medical
supplies to the flood areas.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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