For thousands of East Java residents, the new year had a nightmarish beginning. Like a thief in the night, flash floods and landslides rudely awoke residents late on Sunday night. The floods killed more than 60 people, displaced thousands more and damaged thousands of houses and vehicles.

There is never a good time for a disaster, but it seems particularly cruel for such suffering to occur as people are celebrating the arrival of the new year.

But any celebrations were cut short for the residents of the three districts in Jember regency affected by the floods. The sad fact is that floods have become an almost yearly occurrence for people in the area. What distinguished Sunday's floods was their severity. And meteorologists have predicted more rain is on the way, which could spell more suffering for residents.

One small consolation is that East Java is not a remote province. It is more accessible than more far-flung provinces like Papua or Aceh and has better infrastructure, which should mean the speedy arrival of necessary food and medical aid.

What caused the floods is not clear, but witnesses have talked about collapsed hills, which could point to a possible link with deforestation.

The government was quick to say deforestation played no part in the floods, maintaining this was a natural disaster caused by heavy rains that overwhelmed reservoirs, lakes and water catchment areas. It denied a claim by the East Java chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment that about a fifth of the province's forests have been destroyed in the last three years. The Ministry of Forestry also claims there is no illegal logging in Jember regency.

Whatever the truth is, it is no secret that Indonesia's forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. One indication of this is that disasters like the one on Sunday night have become increasingly common over the past few years. Dozens of people died when a flood and landslide swept through the East Java resort of Pacet in 2002. In 2003, flooding killed more than 200 people and destroyed 450 buildings in Bohorok, North Sumatra. And in 2004, 16 people died in a flood in South Blitar, East Java.

The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bappedal) estimates that Indonesia is losing an area of forest the size of Switzerland every year. Another agency says a total of 2.8 million hectares of forests have been destroyed every year since 1997. That amounts to an area the size of more than 400 soccer fields per hour. The government says illegal logging costs it US$3 billion a year in lost revenue.

The tragedy in Jember once again brutally demonstrated that environmental protection must become a priority for the government. Authorities must provide an answer why the country experiences these yearly floods and landslides. And in the case of Sunday's flood, the government must determine whether deforestation on the nearby Mt. Argopuro contributed to the tragedy. It must also look into charges by local legislators that a huge coffee plantation recently developed by a state-owned company was responsible for the destruction of a large area of forest.

In the short term, authorities must make sure survivors of Sunday's flood receive the aid they need to prevent an outbreak of disease. The post-tsunami aid effort in Aceh is a good example of how to organize relief efforts. If large outbreaks of disease could be prevented after a natural disaster on the scale of the tsunami, there is no reason the same cannot be done in Jember.