Flash Flood; C. Java Sends Aid Packages to Banten,Jakarta,W. Java

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Central Java provincial government shows sympathy for the victims of flash floods and landslides in Banten, Jakarta, and West Java by sending three trucks loaded with humanitarian aid packages on Friday evening.

The aid packages would be sent to each of the three provinces' disaster mitigation agencies to be then distributed to those in need in the disaster zones, Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo said.

Prabowo witnessed the departure of the trucks from the yard of his office on Friday evening, saying that the first batch of this humanitarian aid was a token of brotherhood and care of the people of Central Java to those affected by the deadly catastrophe.

The humanitarian aid packages contain 33 items of such stuff as baby diapers, blankets, bottled water, school uniforms, tents, mattresses, sarongs, and mukenas (head-to-toe prayer gowns) in which each of those items consists of 2,000 pieces, he said.

"There is not much we can send but, Insya Allah (God willing), this is part of our sense of brotherhood, love, care, and solidity among members of one nation. This is also part of our habit of helping one another whenever disasters strike. We help one another," Ganjar Pranowo said.

The Central Java provincial administration also dispatched tens of its personnel and volunteers to help their colleagues in the disaster zones in the three provinces, he added.

Regarding the deadly flash floods and landslides hitting greater Jakarta areas early this year, The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Bambang Soesatyo urged central and regional governments and communities to not engage in a blame game over the catastrophe.

In its place, Soesatyo called on all related parties within the central and regional governments, whose areas were ravaged by the catastrophe over these past three days, to strengthen synergy and cooperation to prevent a relapse of a similar disaster in future.

The flash floods and landslides, ravaging certain areas in Jakarta and several districts and cities in the provinces of West Java and Banten over these past three days, have claimed at least 43 lives and affected 409 thousand others.

Most of the affected people were found in Bekasi City in West Java, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman, Agus Wibowo, noted in a press statement.

The agency recorded that the catastrophe affected 366,274 residents of Bekasi City, while 20,939 and 13,230 people respectively in Jakarta and Bogor District, West Java, bore the impacts of the floods.

The flash floods and landslides also struck the areas of Lebak District and Tangerang Selatan City in Banten Province as well as those in Bekasi District, Bogor City, Depok City, and Cikarang District in West Java Province, Wibowo remarked.

In helping social workers provide food packs for the flood survivors in Jakarta, state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina (Persero) distributed 146 Bright Gas and 12-kilogram gas canisters to handle the demands of 13 public kitchens.

The company's spokesperson, Dewi Sri Utami, had stated earlier that the gas canisters were distributed to the public kitchens on Thursday after those from PT Pertamina's Marketing Operation Region III coordinated with the authorities of BNPB and Jakarta's Social Affairs Office.

A total of 146 gas canisters were handed over to 13 of the 20 public kitchens that the authorities had set up around the capital city to provide food packs to the flood survivors, she remarked, adding that the gas canisters will again be distributed to those in need.

ANTARA