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Suffering through days without clean water or proper medical care, evacuees packed into emergency shelters across three provinces in the northern part of Sumatra are falling severely ill, with some reportedly dying before help can reach them.
With fatalities from the hydrometeorological disaster in Sumatra approaching 1,000 and numerous regions still struggling to receive aid, questions are growing over whether the government can manage the situation without international assistance.
The death toll from the cyclone-induced floods and landslides reached 950 as of Monday, with 274 people still missing, according to official data. The storms also killed about 200 people in southern Thailand and Malaysia.
The President must declare the Sumatra floods and landslides a national disaster so the state can mobilize its vast emergency response apparatus and afterward, learn crucial lessons from this incident for future policies and actions.
The regions hit by the floods and landslides in Aceh remain cut off from the government’s rescue efforts and aid delivery because of infrastructural damages, prompting fear of a rising death toll in one of the worst-hit provinces in the disaster.
Aceh resident Munawar Liza Zainal said he felt "betrayed" by the government, which has so far shrugged off pressure to declare a national disaster. Declaring a national disaster would free up resources and help government agencies coordinate their response.
As fevers, typhoid and skin infections surge among survivors of last week’s deadly floods, authorities are stepping up medical outreach and disease-prevention efforts across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra to contain outbreaks and protect vulnerable communities.
