In Indonesia, 24,000 people have been evacuated due to rising water levels following floods

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

Officials announced Tuesday that floods on Indonesia's Sumatra island had displaced 24,000 people and killed two children, with environmentalists blaming deforestation for exacerbating the crisis.

The island has been battered by torrential rains for days, prompting rivers to overflow their banks and causing water levels to rise in residential areas, according to the national disaster service.

"We get flooding at least five to eight times a year," said Muzakkir, a resident of Pirak Timur in Aceh's hard-hit Aceh province who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name.

 

"The floodwaters just continued rising — at my house, they're up to my chest," Syarifuddin, of the Aceh village of Lhok Sukon, said.

The province has seen evacuations and deaths, as well as the destruction of some buildings by fast-moving floodwaters and the damage to agricultural land.

Jambi province in Sumatra was also severely impacted, with many homes being inundated.

Deforestation to make room for Sumatra's vast palm oil plantations, according to environmental NGO Walhi, exacerbated the flooding.

Trees serve as natural flood defences by slowing the flow of water down hills and into rivers.

 

According to Ahmad Shalihin of Walhi, logging on higher ground was having an especially negative impact in Aceh.

Thousands more people have been forced to abandon their homes in recent days due to heavy downpours in neighbouring Malaysia, which has been heavily struck by flooding since last month.

On Tuesday, about 13,000 people had been evacuated to government shelters, with the states of Johor, Malacca, and Sabah being the hardest hit.

However, the number of people affected has decreased significantly from a peak of over 70,000 in mid-December, when Malaysia experienced its worst floods in years.

According to police, some 50 people have died as a result of the floods across the country.

 

During the months-long rainy season, flooding and landslides are common in both Southeast Asian countries.