“I am tasked by the President to take handling measures for floods in West Sumatra. The PUPR Ministry is responsible for restoring public facilities and infrastructure, especially roads and clean water,” he said.
Hadimuljono emphasized that cleaning and repairing connectivity on the Padang-Painan Road in the province's South Pesisir District is targeted to be finished and the road returned to normal use within the next two weeks.
The Bengkulu-Painan-Padang route is now open and passable by four-wheeled vehicles, but cleanup of landslide material and affected residents' houses is still underway.
Hadimuljono said the West Sumatra Governor informed him that out of the 12 districts affected by floods, five were severely affected, with South Pesisir District bearing the brunt of the disaster.
“In this route, there is a vital object of Pertamina (state oil and gas company), whose distribution chain to other districts and cities must not be interrupted. For that reason, I want all roads affected by landslides to be cleared within a week,” he affirmed.
To deal with landslides on riverbanks that eroded the national road, the minister said he had assigned the West Sumatra National Road Implementation Center along with existing contractors to install sheet piles.
“Landslide-prone points must be immediately handled in the next two weeks. Damaged roads must be repaired immediately, so that in two weeks, the conditions in the region will be clean again and return to normal,” he stated.
The PUPR Ministry is investigating eight suspension bridges in South Pesisir that were damaged by floods.
“We will survey those suspension bridges to determine whether they need to be replaced due to severe damage or can be repaired,” he stated.
He further noted that the handling of damaged houses still awaits the results of data collection conducted by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
As for the fulfillment of clean water needs for the affected residents, Hadimuljono has instructed the Sumatra V River Basin Center (BWS) and the West Sumatra Regional Settlement Infrastructure Center (BPPW) to prepare drilled wells for residents immediately.
In addition, they are urged to help the South Pesisir district government recover the clean water networks in Painan.
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Translator: Aji Cakti, Raka Adji
Editor: Anton Santoso
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