Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post 12 Nov 08;
West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan plans to relocate residents living in areas prone to landslides while at the same time ordering the replanting of some 223,000 hectares of critical land in the province.
"Relocation is badly needed so that residents can resume their daily lives," Heryawan said at the West Java provincial administration office compound, the Gedung Sate.
"The West Java administration and Garut regency administration will immediately relocate 307 residents in Pasirmuncang, Garut."
Heryawan said the provincial administration would provide Rp 1 million (US$88) in relocation funds per family while Garut regency would provide another Rp 500,000.
The province would also ask for funding from the Social Services Ministry which has allocated Rp 10 million per family.
"We want to replant the whole area after the residents move so that the environment can quickly recover," Heryawan said.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation has mapped all areas prone to landslides and has distributed the maps to provincial, municipal and regency administrations nationwide.
Based on the maps, priority areas will be settlements with a high risk of landslides.
The center recorded that since the beginning of the rainy season in late October, there have been at least eight landslides in West Java damaging hundreds of houses, leaving residents homeless.
Some residents were also forced to evacuate as cracks in the earth threatened their houses.
The first landslides happened in Bojonggambir and Sodonghilir in Tasikmalaya regency on Oct. 22, followed by three in Garut regency at Banjarwangi, Cilawu and Pasirmuncang between Oct. 27 and 29.
On Nov. 5 and 7 landslides occurred in Panjalu, Ciamis regency, and Subang, Kuningan regency, while the last recorded landslide was in Pakenjeng, Garut, on Nov. 10.
All landslides took place in steep areas with inclines of 20 to 40 degrees.
Pasirmuncang suffered the most with at least 10 hamlets affected by landslides burying 48.5 hectares of residential and farming areas.
