"Looking at the current situation where the rainfalls are still high, we predict the flood will last until one month ahead," Chairman of the Banyuasin District Disaster Mitigation Board Harobin Mustofa said here on Tuesday.
There are two sub-districts affected by the flood in Banyuasin, namely Rantau Bayur and Pulau Rimau. Among the two sub-districts, Rantau Bayur is hit the hardest by the flood, with 17 of a total of 20 villages inundated by flood water.
About 1,600 families are impacted by the flood. Most of them are still living in their flooded houses (mostly those who are living in stilt houses), while the rest has evacuated to several temporary shelters.
The local government has distributed humanitarian aid, namely food supply, blankets and medicine among the people living in the flood-hit areas.
"Considering that the flood is predicted to last for sometime, we are now trying to propose more humanitarian aid to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency," Harobin added.
Earlier, spokesperson for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said some parts of Indonesia could be hit by landslides and floods before April 2013 as the country is facing rainy season.
"A total of 315 districts and cities in Indonesia could be hit by floods. Nearly 60.9 million people could be affected as a result. In addition, 270 districts and cities in Indonesia could be hit by flash floods," he said.
Sutopo added that Indonesia is more likely to be hit by hydro-meteorological disasters such as floods, landslides, whirlwinds, droughts and high tides, than geological, social and biological disasters.
According to him, global warming results in hydro-meteorological disasters.
Sutopo said apart from landslides and floods, cold lava floods may occur near Mount Merapi (Yogyakarta province), Mount Gamalama (North Maluku), Mount Bromo (East Java), Mount Lokon and Mount Soputan (North Sulawesi).
(A051/S012)
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
