T

he Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) in North Sumatra has attributed the major flooding that hit several regencies over the last week to the rapid rate of environmental destruction.

“Large-scale oil palm plantation has infringed embankments along many rivers in North Sumatra, including in Padang Lawas. When heavy rainfall takes place, the narrower rivers are unable to accommodate the volume of water, which thereby overflows,” North Sumatra BPBD chairman Ahmad Hidayat Nasution said on Wednesday.

The major flooding, sparked by incessant and heavy rainfall, hit several regencies, including Serdang Bedagai, Deli Serdang, Mandailing Natal, Padang Lawas and Labuhan Batu.

Besides disrupting the Trans-Sumatra highway, which links the northern part of Sumatra in Banda Aceh to the southern tip of the island in Bakauheni, Lampung, the disaster submerged thousands of houses and forced their residents to evacuate.

A 4-year-old boy was also found dead in a ditch near Pekong River in Serdang Bedagai on Wednesday afternoon. The victim was identified as Reza.

Hidayat said that the magnitude of the flood which hit a large part of North Sumatra was so huge it had overwhelmed the provincial administration, which claimed to be unable to deal with it alone and asked for help from the private sector.

“If it is all left to the government, it will be impossible. There must be a role for the private sector,” he said.

Serdang Bedagai BPBD Joni Walker said on Wednesday that the flooding in the regency was still 1 or 2 meters deep.

In Serdang Bedagai alone, up to 1,800 houses were still inundated as of Wednesday afternoon, he said. “All residents of the affected areas have been evacuated to safer locations,” Joni said, adding that at least 4,000 evacuees had been temporarily accommodated at nearby makeshift shelters.

The director of the North Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Kusnadi Oldani, explained that all the areas hit by the flooding in the province no longer had forested lands. There has been a massive conversion of forest to agricultural land.

“You see nearly all forested lands have been converted into plantation areas. It is ironic, though, that the plantation also covers river embankments,” he said, adding that ideally areas up to 70 meters from riverbanks should be free from plantation trees.

Kusnadi was convinced the flooding would remain endemic in those areas until delinquent plantation owners who planted trees wherever they liked were reprimanded.