July 12, 2024
JAKARTA – Bad weather has once again hampered the search for dozens of people who are still missing five days after a landslide hit an illegal mine in Gorontalo on Sulawesi Island.
Torrential rain over the weekend triggered a landslide near a mine in Tulabalo village, Bone Bolango regency, where dozens of people were digging for gold. The unusually heavy rain occurred despite the region being in the peak of the dry season.
More than 1,000 rescuers from various institutions have been deployed in the past five days to rescue miners and villagers living nearby, with 93 people having been found alive so far.
By Wednesday, rescuers found the bodies of 11 more victims, bringing the total death toll to 23.
But torrential rain again battered the Tulobalo village and triggered another smaller landslide near the mine, forcing rescuers to halt rescue operations since Wednesday night for the remaining 29 missing people believed to be buried under the rubble, according to Gorontalo Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas Gorontalo) head of operations Ida Bagus Ngurah Asrama.
“There are concerns over the safety of the rescuers,” Ida said on Wednesday night.
Helicopters used to aid the evacuation process could not land near the collapsed mine because of rain and thick fog.
“We had been using excavators and other heavy equipment to dig up the debris. Rescuers had to work on a two-day shift basis to find the missing victims because of the remote location of the mine,” Ida said.
Rescuers reportedly had to walk more than 20 kilometers through difficult terrain covered in thick mud to reach the disaster site.
Unrelenting rain also hindered communication between rescuers, according to Bone Bolango Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head Achryl Babyonggo, as reported by Kompas.
Previously on Tuesday, a heavy downpour also forced rescuers to temporarily halt their search operation.
Ridwan Wadjah, one of the miners who survived the landslide, said he pushed himself out of the mud and debris and he ran to a nearby village at midnight to seek help, Reuters reported. The villagers, fearful of the rain, told him to wait until morning, he said.
“I still remember what the landslide looked like,” he told Reuters several days after the incident.
Landslides are frequent in Indonesia, with the risk often increased by deforestation and small-scale illegal mining operations in remote and protected forest areas that are difficult for the government to regulate.
But low employment opportunities in rural areas often drive people to increasingly rely on illegal mining activities for their livelihood. Ridwan’s family is one of them, but the 53-year-old said that after the accident, he really needed a break.
“I must take a break now. And it’s been raining all the time, so I should take a break,” he said, as quoted from Reuters.
Asked how he would make ends meet now, Ridwan said: “I can only let God work things out his way. I just have to have patience.”
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) forecast more anomalous torrential rain, thunderstorms and strong winds in some parts of the country, including some regions in Sulawesi, until Sunday, despite the country being in the height of the dry season.
The unusually heavy rain was caused by the Madden-Julian Oscillation intraseasonal tropical climate variability, coupled with equatorial Kelvin and Rossby waves and warmer sea surface temperatures in waters around Indonesia that cause more clouds to build up in parts of the country, the weather agency said.
In Gorontalo city, located some 20 kilometers from Bone Bolango, the body of a man was found buried under debris of his house, which was partly damaged in a landslide on Wednesday night, Antara reported.