Floods inundate 879 hectares of Jambi rice fields

Antara 16 Jan 10;

Jambi (ANTARA News) - Floods triggered by incessant rains over the past three weeks, have submerged a total of 879.41 hectares of rice fields in Jambi Province.

The floods also caused 116 hectares of rice fields failed to harvest, Amrin Aziz, head of the Jambi provincial facility and infrastructure section, said here on Saturday.

Maize and peanut fields respectively measuring 10 hectares were also flooded, and five hectares of them were spoiled.

The Jambi authorities would provide seedlings and 54,000 tons of subsidized fertilizers to help farmers whose fields being hit by the floods, he said.

The floods affected 24 hectares of rice fields in Bathin, 10 hectares in Batanghari District, 233 hectares in Muarojambi District, 1.35 hectare in Bungo District, 213 hectares in Tebo District, 214 hectares in Merangin District, 27.25 hectares in Sarolangun District, and 292 hectares in Kerinci.

The floods have also inundated thousands of houses and forced a number of residents to evacuate themselves to safer areas.

Indonesia is now in rainy season which has triggered floods in several areas, including in the capital city of Jakarta.(*)

Floods, bad weather hit Jambi, Lombok
Jon Afrizal and Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post 16 Jan 10;

Floods continued to inundate several schools in Jambi while bad weather disrupted sea voyages in West Nusa Tenggara on Friday.

The SDN 83, SDN 193 and SDN 164 elementary schools in East Jambi district, in Jambi have had to give students leave because floods have swamped both the school compounds and the classrooms.

"Students have been given leave as water has entered the classrooms and disrupted lessons," said Nurijah, a neighborhood unit chief in Sijenjang subdistrict, East Jambi district.

Activities at SMP 23 state junior high school have continued despite the flood, which engulfed the field in 1-meter-high water, disrupting extracurricular activities, such as sports and a flag-raising ceremony.

School vice principal Akmal Said said although the floods had disrupted a number of activities, students were still attending school.

The Jambi Disaster Mitigation task force recorded that 1,429 houses were totally engulfed and 3,435 others swamped by floods.

Acting task force head Susilo said floods have hit five districts in the city: Pasar, East Jambi, Pelayangan, Danau Teluk and Telanaipura.

The floods in Jambi city over the past several days in Pelayangan district have submerged 56 homes and forced 56 families, or 267 people to take refuge at residents' homes not affected by the floods.

However, the flood victims have yet to receive aid despite the fact that data on the number of victims has already been handed over to the municipality, disaster mitigation task force and municipal council.

Pelayangan district chief Abdullah said they had not received relief aid for flood victims in his area, though data on the number of victims had been handed over to the municipal council during its recent hearing.

"The flood level is still above 1.5 meters."

In West Nusa Tenggara, rain followed by strong winds and high tides over the past week disrupted ferry crossing activities at the Lembar Port in West Lombok, which connects to Bali's Padangbai port.

The Lembar Port branch PT Indonesia Ferry state-owned ferry company had suspended ferry crossings since Thursday night due to bad weather.

PT Indonesia Ferry Lembar Port branch manager Kaimuddin Maliling told The Jakarta Post on Friday the decision to close the port was reached at 11 p.m. local time Thursday due to heavy rain followed by strong winds and huge waves up to 3 meters tall.

"We closed the port last night due to the grave risk to passenger safety during this bad weather," he said.

At least 19 ferries are currently plying the Lembar-Padangbai, Bali route, once in two hours. However, the ferry schedule could be delayed by up to eight hours due to the bad weather, thus leading vehicles to back up at Lembar Port.

"Vehicles lining up at the port have reached 1 kilometer outside the port area, or approaching the Lembar market. We are making efforts to apply the open-close system to prevent further congestion."