Deadly natural disasters look to have struck too early for Indonesia, just after the country won praise for hosting a key climate change conference in Bali last month. A national follow-up plan prescribing forest conservation among other measures remained a work on paper when floods and landslides struck.
Over 100 people have been killed and thousands displaced as terrifying earth, wind and water pummeled parts of the country from North Sumatra to East Nusa Tenggara. The densely populated island of Java was the area hit hardest, as landslides buried 64 people in the Central Java regency of Karanganyar. The death toll stood at 112 with at least 20 still missing in the disasters that have struck Central and East Java since late last month.
The number of fatalities will rise if food and medical supplies do not reach the disaster victims.
With rainy season expected to peak between January and February, other regions of the country will have to brace for disaster. Jakarta is no exception and cannot take the "five-year cycle" for granted in attempts to forecast major flooding.
Massive flooding punished Jakarta last year, but the potential for a more devastating calamity remains. The Ciliwung River which dissects the capital city has already burst its banks in places, inundating adjacent residential areas.
Indonesia hasn't seen a flood and landslide-free year in the past decade. The flash flood which claimed about 200 lives in the Bukit Lawang resort in North Sumatra in November 2003 is perhaps the most severe recent disaster associated with heavy rainfall. That floods and landslides recur every year suggests the nation isn't learning from the past, or isn't acting fast enough to stop disasters.
The disasters are undoubtedly a result of negligent environmental stewardship, but there is a long-standing debate over whether deforestation is the culprit. The controversy prompted Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban to clarify that the Karanganyar landslides had nothing to do with deforestation.
Statistics however reveal that floods and landslides have spread as deforestation and conversion of forestland to other uses intensifies. Jakarta, for example, is prone to floods as 40 percent of it lies below the level of the sea to the north; but the denuding of forests to the south has exacerbated flooding.
Authorities have said the landslides in Karanganyar were made possible when trees were cleared to plant cash crops. Hillsides were turned into vegetable belts, unable to withstand relentless heavy rains and prone to landslides. Environmental experts raised an alert recently when they found that nature conservation areas at the foot of Mt. Lawu were being used for farming.
Environmentalists have long warned that the loss of forest cover, which acts to absorb rainfall and keep hillsides from slipping, can result in disaster. They also advocate extensive reforestation on Java, which has been largely stripped of its original forests, warning that more flooding and landslides will become more frequent otherwise.
Only in 2003 the government initiated a national land and forest rehabilitation plan (Gerhan), which includes reforestation of bare, high-risk lands. Trillions of rupiah have been spent so far, but corruption may have undermined the program. Leading group Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), while supporting the worthy objectives of the program, has found that much of the money allocated for environmental rehabilitation has been stalled for unacceptable reasons.
Investigation into alleged corruption in state funding for the Gerhan scheme should not hinder reforestation efforts. More resolute action is needed as the deforestation rate in the country is three times that of the rehabilitation rate under the scheme.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – then chief security minister – and Jusuf Kalla – then chief welfare minister – initiated the land and forest rehabilitation program. As such, the president and vice president are all the more responsible for saving the nation from future man-made disasters.
The Yudhoyono administration may introduce a breakthrough to follow up on the Bali conference by upgrading the Office of State Minister for the Environment to a portfolio ministry. Many had turned a blind eye to environmental conservation policies as they were unaccompanied by sanctions. Empowering the environment minister will help the government harmonize and enforce its pro-environment policies.
It may be quite late given the environmental devastation the country is facing, but it's better than doing nothing.