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ozens of hectares of rice fields were flooded in Karangasem village, Sayung district, Demak regency, Central Java. Local residents said the flooding took place from Wednesday evening until Thursday noon, inundating rice fields and part of the village.

“The flood was due to the overflowing river in our village. Fortunately, it is not so deep and the main roads are still passable by motorcycles and cars, and I could still sell vegetables at the market,” said Watini, a vegetable vendor at the Umbul market.

The dozens of houses behind the market, however, were inundated and roads in the village turned into small rivers. Children seemed happy as they played in puddles of water while catching small fish.

Separately, pools of water on Jl. Kaligawe, Semarang, which had formed early Tuesday, have yet to recede as of Thursday. The pools of water, ranging between 10 and 20 cm high, caused traffic congestion from the Kaligawe toll road tunnel to the Genuk intersection.

The River Basin Area Center has deployed four pump trucks to pump out pools of water on Jl. Kaligawe, which is on the main Java north coast highway.

“It’s part of emergency response measures to pump out flood and tidal water on Jl, Kaligawe in order to expedite traffic flow,” said Central Java Water Resource Management Agency head Prasetyo Budhi Yuwono.

The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry will this year start implementing measures as part of its long-term program to deal with floods in Semarang.

The flooding in Semarang and Demak in the past couple of days did not cause casualties or huge material damage, but peoples’ economic activities were slightly disturbed.

In addition, hundreds of rice fields in some villages in Bojonegoro, East Java, were totally destroyed by the overflowing Bengawan Solo river. At least 165 hectares of rice fields were highly affected.

Pucangarum village head Sanawi said half of those rice fields were recently just planted with rice seeds. “All of them were destroyed,” he said, adding farmers suffered financial losses of up to Rp 5 million per hectare.

The flooding occurred because the wall along the Bengawan Solo river could not stand the water pressure. Eventually, the wall collapsed, hence the flooding.

“Farmers did not insure their rice plants,” Sanawi said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Aside from destroying the rice fields in Pucangarum village, the floods also inundated rice fields in Kedungprimpen village, Kanor district.

“Residents had tried to block the water using bags of soil and sand but it did not work,” he added.

Separately, Kalisari village head Khairuddin said the overflowing Bengawan Solo river had also devastated almost 200 hectares of rice fields in the village.

“Rice plants in our village and other villages in Baureno district have been inundated since a day ago,” he said.

Kanor district head Wardoyo said the local disaster mitigation agency (BPBD) had deployed personnel to repair the wall along the river in Kedungprimpen village.