Mud flooding along a number of big rivers in Magelang, Central Java, originating from Mount Merapi, continued Thursday even though the flow has subsided.
“The flooding has decreased from yesterday,” Yulianto, an officer of the Jrakah volcanic observation post, said Thursday as quoted by Antara.
The flooding with brownish currents consisting of a mixture of volcanic ash, sand, large stones and uprooted tree trunks, occurred briefly from around 2 p.m.
Roaring sounds were heard as a result of crashing stones at Senowo River at Ngargomulyo, Dukun district, Magelang, about 10 kilometers below the mountains’s crater.
Residents gathered in a number of places beside the river to witness the flooding, where the smell of sulphur was strong.
Aside from Senowo River, mud floods occurred through Putih, Apu, Trising and Pabelan rivers.
“The flooding took place here even though there was no rainfall. Maybe rain poured at higher areas of the mountain,” said Ponidi, head of Tangkil hamlet in Ngargomulyo village, 6 kilometers from the crater.
Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, an official said Thursday that the government would prioritize the rehabilitation of water infrastructure on the slope of Mount Merapi once the emergency response period was declared over following the ongoing eruptions of the world’s most active volcano.
The Public Work Ministry’s Drinking Water Development director, Dani Sutjiono, said the rehabilitation would first be conducted at the main intake of Umbul Wadon spring in Cangkringan district, Sleman, which was severely devastated by the pyroclastic flows from erupting Merapi.
Yet, as the spring is located only some 7 kilometers from the peak of the volcano and thus is still within the danger zone, work to rehabilitate the area must be postponed until the authority declares it safe.
“So far we do not yet know how much we need to rehabilitate, but for sure both the intake and the pipelines have been severely damaged,” Dani told reporters at the handover ceremony of a mobile water plant unit for Merapi refugees at Maguwoharjo Stadium evacuation center Thursday.
The mobile water purifier unit, donated by transnational General Electric company in 2005 following the Aceh tsunami, was handed over to Sleman administration to help it provide a clean water supply for Merapi refugees. “This is the same unit that was operated on to help supply clean water for earthquake survivors in Bantul in 2006 and now it’s back to Yogyakarta to help Merapi victims,” GE Indonesia president Handry Satriago said.
The unit, which has the capacity to produce some 720,000 liters of clean water a day, will stay in Sleman for three months. Handry said GE also donated US$250,000 for the operational of the unit while it was in the regency.
Separately head of drinking water development working group at the provincial Cipta Karya Agency of the Public Work Ministry, Hardjono Sudjanadi, said that his office had so far registered 37 damaged drinking water systems in Wonokerto and Girikerto and 12 others in Purwobinangun, Sleman.
“We are conducting a survey to gain funds from the provincial budget to conduct a labor-intensive project to rehabilitate them,” Hardjono said.
