Heavy rains in Indonesia bring landslides, floods after dry season
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Jakarta - At least five dead, one missing and thousands affected by landslides and floods after heavy rain hit 14 regions in Indonesia for the past four days, an official said Sunday.
A spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that thousands of homes were affected by the floods, and hundreds of others are threatened by imminent landslides.
"There are 63.7 million people in Indonesia that live in flood-prone areas while 40.9 million others live in areas highly vulnerable to landslide. We need to mitigate them from being hit by disasters," Nugroho said.
The meteorological and climatology agency predicted that the rainy season in Indonesia will peak by the end of January or early February.
The prolonged El Nino global weather phenomenon has delayed the start of the rain season, and its high intensity has reduced precipitationin areas such as Java, Bali and both East and West Nusa Tenggara.
The rainy season will enter the neutral phase by March or April.
Nugroho said the lowered precipitation has significantly reduced the number of landslides, floods and tornadoes across the country compared to average figures for January.
