December 9, 2024
JAKARTA – Authorities plan to launch a cloud seeding operation to mitigate flooding in the disaster-hit Sukabumi regency in West Java following a series of hydrometeorological hazards striking the area over the last few days.
The plan, announced by National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Suharyanto following a disaster mitigation coordination meeting in the regency on Friday, aims to reduce the intensity of rainfall within the regency.
“We’re trying to reduce the rainfall around Sukabumi with a weather modification operation,” Suharyanto said in a statement from the agency on Friday.
Aside from preventing more floods and landslides from occurring, the cloud seeding operation was expected to help search and rescue teams locate missing people, he went on to say.
Heavy rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday triggered flooding and landslides that affected 39 districts across the regency.
At least eight people lost their lives during the disaster, while at least four people were still missing, according to data from the Sukabumi Regency Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) as of Saturday, as quoted by kompas.id.
Most of the dead and missing people were from Simpenan and Ciemas districts, which were among the hardest-hit areas.
Read also: Extreme weather triggers landslides, floods in West Java
Suharyanto urged the joint search and rescue team to work harder to locate the missing people. He also pushed for authorities to build temporary bridges to open access to cut-off villages, replacing roads and bridges damaged by the floods and landslides to allow them to deliver humanitarian aid to affected villagers.
During Friday’s meeting, Suharyanto also ordered authorities to set up a main post at the Sukabumi regency office’s hall, as well as a tactical post at the Palabuhanratu district to help coordinate disaster mitigation and the distribution of aid.
He asserted that the national disaster agency would assist the local administrations in disaster mitigation until the situation is deemed to have improved.
The Sukabumi regency declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, which will take effect for seven days in order to mitigate the disasters’ impacts.
More than 300 people were affected by the disasters. They took shelter in safer places, with officials from local administrations, as well as the Social Affairs Ministry’s Disaster Emergency Response Unit (Tagana) fulfilling their needs for food and medicine.
The BNPB also urged local authorities to prepare heavy equipment, water pumps and other provisions in case the situation worsens, as weather conditions are unpredictable in the regency.
Most parts of the country are entering the rainy season, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). The agency forecasts that the country will see a 20 percent increase in rainfall intensity thanks to a weak La Niña, which typically brings a wetter rainy season with heavier rainfall to the country.
The rainy season may peak in late December for most parts of Sumatra and southern Java, while the peak will likely arrive in January to areas in central and northern Java.
Aside from West Java, the cloud seeding operation was also launched in Jakarta over the weekend, when the capital city was forecast to be hit by heavy rainfall.
The weather modification operation was carried out by the Jakarta BPBD from Friday to Sunday, as well as on Dec. 20, said acting Jakarta governor Teguh Setyabudi in a meeting with the weather agency on Thursday.
“We’re also requesting the BMKG to coordinate with the local disaster agency regarding the possibility of emergency status declaration due to the potential for heavy rainfall faced by the city as in early 2020,” Teguh said in a statement.
Heavy rainfall during the 2020 New Year’s Eve caused massive flooding in Greater Jakarta that led to dozens of deaths and forced around 170,000 others to flee their submerged homes. People said the early 2020 flooding was the worst since 2013.
Teguh also ordered the city’s agencies to be vigilant should the heavy rain trigger floods in the city.