July 10, 2024
JAKARTA – Rescuers are racing to find 35 people who are still missing two days after a landslide over the weekend buried an illegal gold mine in Gorontalo on Sulawesi Island and killed at least 23 miners and residents living nearby.
Anomalous torrential rain that happened at the height of the dry season triggered the disaster on Sunday morning in Tulabolo village in Bone Bolango regency, with the landslide engulfing miners and residents living nearby.
Rescue efforts had restarted on Tuesday after being temporarily halted on Monday evening because of heavy rain, Gorontalo Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas Gorontalo) official Salama said, as reported by Reuters. Nearly 400 people from Basarnas, the police and the military were involved in the rescue operation, which was aided by a helicopter.
Data from the Basarnas national office received by The Jakarta Post showed that 66 people had been found alive by Tuesday, though the operation was being hampered by thick mud and some rescuers had to walk more than 20 kilometers to reach the site of the disaster.
Earlier on Monday, the agency said at least 12 people had died and 18 were missing, a toll that was updated later in the day to 10 dead and 40 missing.
Read also: Death toll from Gorontalo landslide rises to 23
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the landslide also damaged several houses and one bridge nearby the illegal mine while heavy rain over the weekend triggered flooding in several neighborhoods in five other districts in Bone Bolango on Sunday, affecting almost 290 families.
“People in parts of Sulawesi, particularly Gorontalo and Mamuju [in West Sulawesi], need to be stay alert for potential hydrometeorological disasters [flooding and landslides],” BNPB spokesperson Abdul Muhari told a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
Indonesia has many unlicensed mines and safety regulations are routinely violated, especially in remote areas, even though the country has banned small-scale gold mining.
Lack of regulations and poor construction of jerry-built mines mean that accidents are frequent, but low employment opportunities in rural areas often drive people to increasingly rely on illegal mining activities for their livelihood.
Read also: Seven dead in West Kalimantan mine landslide
In late 2022, six people were killed when an illegal gold mine collapsed in South Kalimantan, triggered by a heavy downpour.
Eight people were declared dead late last year after being buried for seven days in an illegal gold mine in Central Java, which collapsed following a water leak inside the mine.
Indonesia is in the peak of the dry season but torrential rains have battered several regions in the past few days, causing flooding in several parts of Java and the deadly landslide in Gorontalo. The unusual heavy rain has been caused by several weather anomalies, largely the Madden-Julian Oscillation intraseasonal tropical climate variability, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
Read also: Weather fluctuation causes unusual heavy rain in dry season
The weather agency updated its forecast on Monday, saying that more anomalous torrential rain, thunderstorms and strong winds in some regions, including Sumatra and parts of Sulawesi, are expected until Sunday.
“As for parts of Java, we predict a slimmer chance of rain starting on Thursday,” BMKG head Dwikorita said in a press release.
Heavy rain on Saturday also inundated parts of seven subdistricts in South Tangerang in Banten and caused a landslide that damaged one house in the municipality, which is located on the outskirts of Jakarta.