Indonesian village turns red as floods hit batik-manufacturing hub

 

People ride motorbikes through a flooded road with red water due to the dye-waste from cloth factories, in Pekalongan, Central Java province, Indonesia, February 6, 2021 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Harviyan Perdana Putra/ via REUTERS

 

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A surreal, blood-red river inundated the Indonesian village of Jenggot after floods hit a nearby batik factory on Saturday, causing a frenzy on social media.

 

Thousands of users on Twitter shared photos and videos of the village south of Pekalongan city in Central Java being flooded by crimson-coloured water, which some social media users said reminded them of blood.

 

"I am so afraid if this photo gets into the bad hands of hoax spreaders," said a Twitter user Ayah E Arek-Arek. "Fear mongering narratives about signs that it is the end of the world, bloody rain etc".

 

Pekalongan is a city known for manufacturing batik, a traditional Indonesian method of using wax to resist water-based dyes to depict patterns and drawings, usually on fabric.

 

It is not uncommon for rivers in Pekalongan to turn different colours. Bright green water covered another village north of the city during a flood last month.

 

"Sometimes there are purple puddles on the road too," said Twitter user Area Julid, who claimed to be from the area.

 

The head of Pekalongan disaster relief, Dimas Arga Yudha, confirmed that the photos being circulated were real.

 

"The red flood is due to the batik dye, which has been hit by the flood. It will disappear when it mixes with rain after a while," he said.

 

(Reporting by Fathin Ungku and Maikel Jefriando; Editing by Kim Coghill)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-06

 

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The dyes used in most batik processes are toxic.......????

10 minutes ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

The dyes used in most batik processes are toxic.......????

No..Sorry...prove it! Many dyes are potentially toxic but not particularly in the Batik craft business.

12 minutes ago, Nout said:

No..Sorry...prove it! Many dyes are potentially toxic but not particularly in the Batik craft business.

though I don't know the chemistry of the agents I would of thought if they were really 'toxic' it would of been alerted to by now from the millions of instances these clothes were used..

For a second I thought it was the latest news from Yangon.