According to Indonesia’s disaster agency BNPB, flooding affected 3,845 people in Murung Raya Regency in Central Kalimantan where the Barito River broke its banks. More than 770 houses and several other buildings, including health facilities, were destroyed.

A series of floods caused by torrential rains hit the South Kalimantan province in January. It was the worst flood to affect the region in the last ten years, and the first major flood in the past fifty years.  Most of the regions affected had never experienced such a flood before.

There were 15 deaths while many still missing. Landslides were also triggered by the floods. The most affected regions were Banjarmasin, Central Hulu Sungai Regency, and Tanah Laut Regency. More than 100,000 people were evacuated.

The Director of Indonesian Forum for Environment for South Kalimantan, Dwi Cahyono, argued that the flood was caused by environmental degradation in the form of hundreds of mining holes that were not reclaimed and nearly fifty percent of the 3.7 million hectares of land were controlled by mining and oil palm companies. (ILKHA)