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Tempo Magazine
Friday, January 12, 2007
Floods inundated seven districts in eastern Aceh. The
previous year Leuser Mountain saw excessive, illegal
logging.
TAMIANG River is overflowing. Get out and run!"
Indra's brother rang him up at 2am on Thursday two
weeks ago, saving his family's life.
Indra jumped out of bed, woke his wife and grabbed his
5-year-old child. His wife carried their 1-year-old as
they both ran from the house, shouting warnings to
their neighbors. Several people were already outside
their homes, ready to evacuate.
Indra's brother lives at Simpang Jernih, East Aceh
district, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, a seven-hour river
ride from Pahlawan Bawah, Kota Kuala Simpang, Aceh
Tamiang where Indra lives. East Aceh is the headwaters
of the overflowing Tamiang River.
Indra with 155 other Pahlawa Bawah villagers, fled to
higher ground. Within half an hour, they all gathered
at the National Building, waiting anxiously for the
floodwaters.
Around 4am, while the children were sleeping once
again, the Tamiang River water started to rise. The
river, carrying logs, washed away 20 houses on the
riverbank. More than 100 houses were damaged and the
water was rising higher and higher. Fortunately, the
floodwaters at the National Building were only
knee-high.
Floods are a regular occurrence at Kota Kuala Simpang
during the wet season. As far as Indra can remember,
the last serious flood was 10 years ago. Even then,
the water did not reach the houses and children were
brave enough to swim and play on the riverbank. This
flood was beyond belief. "We have never experienced
such a flood before, the current was very fast," said
Indra.
The rain did not stop for days. Twelve subdistricts in
seven districts in Aceh province were inundated.
Within a week, almost 10,000 houses were severely
damaged, 400,000 people evacuated, and 70 people were
found dead. The headwaters of all the four overflowing
rivers, Tamiang, Peusangan, Tripa, and Jambo, are in
the Leuser Mountain range, in the center of Aceh
province.
According to the chief of Leuser Mountain National
Park, Wiratno, the illegal logging in Leuser Mountain
Forest is responsible for the flood. "The flood in
Aceh was definitely caused by illegal logging," said
Wiratno confidently. Illegal logging has been going on
for several years and the park officers simply ignored
it.
The logging worsened after the tsunami disaster two
years ago. Around 3,000 tsunami refugees from the west
coast now live in Leuser Mountain National Park.
Jamal M. Gawi from the Leuser Foundation, which runs
the National Park area, says that the devastation
increased after the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the
Indonesian government signed a peace treaty last
August. "The illegal loggers were scared of GAM so
after the peace treaty was signed, the illegal logging
got worse," he said.
The Indonesian Environmental Database, shows that
Aceh's forest area is declining at an annual rate as a
result of illegal logging. This year, 266,000 hectares
of forest were lost, an area four times the size of
Jakarta. This figure is 10 times higher than previous
years.
Two other factors contributing to the rate of
deforestation are the issuing of permits that allow
the utilization of up to 637,000 hectares of forest
area, as well as the construction of the Ladia Galaska
Road, which traverses 91.3 kilometers of Aceh
protected forest area and 79.7 kilometers of the
Leuser ecosystem area. "Furthermore, the palm oil
plantation concession in the area reaches 300,000
hectares," said Dewa Gumay, Banda Aceh's environmental
advocate and campaign manager.
The frequent illegal logging is obvious. The
headwaters at Leuser Mountain Range Area could no
longer contain the water. The flood has isolated
several subdistricts and caused difficulties in
distributing aid. According to Indra, the refugees at
the National Building in Kota Kuala Simpang, have
received rice only twice this week. "It's not enough,
but it's still better than nothing," he said.
Aceh Tamiang Regent, Syahbuddin, explained that the
aid is distributed through only one channel, from the
subdistrict heads down to each village leader. "Not
through any organizations," he said.
Confusion occurred at one distribution point in
Lintang town, Aceh Tamiang, when over 100 women raided
the aid distribution station. "Who is going to
distribute the aid? It's been six days and we haven't
received anything!" shouted one angry woman. The
demonstrators managed to take several water containers
before they were dispersed. [(Agung Rulianto, Adi
Warsidi (Banda Aceh), Imran MA (Lhokseumawe)]. |
Environment
