Dozens of residents of Halado village in Toba Samosir district, North Sumatra, have been relocated to a nearby village in the same subdistrict, which is considered safer, following landslides that killed nine people in the village.

Toba Samosir Disaster Mitigation Agency (Toba Samosir BPBD) head Herbeth Pasaribu said the Toba Samosir administration had so far relocated 39 people from Halado over concerns more landslides will occur during the rainy season.

“It is better that the residents be relocated to a safer place,” Herbeth said on Saturday. “If they need to be [permanently] relocated, we will think about that later.”

Nine people were killed when a landslide buried four houses in Halado village in Pintu Pohan Meranti subdistrict on Wednesday night after heavy rain. Five people were also injured in the disaster, while access between Toba Samosir and Asahan was cut off.

North Sumatra Governor Edy Rahmayadi said he had ordered people who lived in disaster-prone areas across the province to be relocated, urging local administrations to evaluate settlement planning and people’s choice of locations for their houses.

“Our people are only thinking about living close to the roads. They don’t consider the risks of what could possibly happen. We will evaluate this later,” Edy said while visiting the Halado landslides victims on Saturday.

Recent data from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) show that around 17 percent of the country’s total population, or around 40.9 million people, live in landslide-prone regions, however only 200 early warning systems are installed across Indonesia.

Last week, a landslide that struck Parapat subdistrict in Simalungun regency killed a person who was trapped inside his house at the time of the disaster.

Endah Paramitha from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency’s (BMKG) Medan office said landslides were likely to occur in several regions in North Sumatra, including, among other regions, Toba Samosir, North Tapanuli and Simalungun, and urged people to be cautious about floods and landslides during the rainy season.

“The rain is heavy, meaning landslides are more likely to happen,” Endah said.

Herbeth said a joint team was still searching for one missing Halado resident but that extreme weather and difficult terrain was hampering the search.

“Yesterday [Friday], four more landslides occurred in the area. Because of this, our team had to work with extreme caution and continuously monitor the movement of the ground there,” Herbeth said.

Recent heavy rains in the west of the country have caused landslides, as well as floods, in several provinces in Sumatra and Java islands in recent weeks.

Last week, a landslide in Sitinjau Lauik in neighboring Padang province damaged roads and cut off access between Padang and Solok. Three vehicles, including a bus, were dragged off a cliff. One casualty was recorded and three people were injured.

In East Java, landslides destroyed four houses in Jember regency on Saturday night, while nine houses and a road were destroyed in Trenggalek regency two weeks ago.

Heru Widagdo of the Jember BPBD said they had relocated 20 families in anticipation of more landslides as heavy downpours continued to occur in the area, Antara reported.

Last month, the BNPB warned about the potential for landslides and floods as Sumatra and Java enter the rainy season.

Hydro-meteorological disasters like landslides, floods and tornados, referred to locally as angin puting beliung, were the most frequently occurring natural disasters across the country in 2017, constituting more than 90 percent of the 2,341 disasters recorded.

Floods and landslides throughout last year caused 291 deaths, destroyed thousands of houses and saw more than 2.3 million people displaced, according to the BNPB. (spl)

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