The death toll from landslides and floods in Indonesia's Aceh
and North Sumatra provinces reached 108 on Wednesday and the figure
is expected to rise as over 180 others were still missing since
last Friday, officials said in Banda Aceh.
Secretary of the Aceh Disaster Management Agency Suwarno Amin
said the death toll in Aceh reached 69 with 169 remained missing.
Most of the missing is in Tamiang regency with 164 people.
In North Sumatra, the fatality has risen to 11 in Langkat
regency and 28 in Muara Sipongi regency, and there are nine people
missing, said an official of the Disaster Management Agency of the
province Nazaruddin.
Although the water has receded, the number of internally
displaced persons has risen to 203,722, according to health
ministry official Rustam Pakaya.
Pakaya said health officials have imposed preventive measures in
the two provinces and also nearby province of Riau, which was also
hit by floods, to counter epidemic outbreaks.
"We have been conducting fogging, sterilizing waters and other
surveillances," he said, adding that diarrhea, malaria and other
diseases are feared to appear at this time.
Local website Serambi online has reported that scores of
displaced persons have suffered from diarrhea and skin disease due
to poor sanitation in the temporary shelters.
Pakaya said that all the aids from government and organizations
have reached the disaster-hit area, but a local Metro TV station
reported the aids are still concentrated in warehouses.
The disaster has been blamed on consecutive territorial rains
and deforestation which resulted in lack of adequate forest cover
land to hold excess water. Indonesia has been frequently hit by
such kind of disasters during wet season.
Two years ago, Aceh was devastated by an Indian Ocean tsunami
triggered by 8.7 magnitude earthquake, which left some 170,000 dead
or missing in the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island.
(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2006)
