Sumatra Flood Recovery Will Take More Than a Year, Interior Minister Admits

Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian acknowledged that the recovery from hydrometeorological disaster impacts in several areas on Sumatra Island cannot be completed within a year. He stated that the affected areas are very widespread. "To be honest, the extent of this impact requires time and cannot be finished in just one year. We are now in September, and the period from November to August has passed. It's impossible to fully recover everything in nine months, and I cannot guarantee it will be possible," Tito said at a press conference at the Bakom RI Office in Jakarta on Wednesday (5/8). Tito explained that the problems faced in the field are diverse. He gave an example of North Aceh Regency, where the city might seem unaffected, but the problems become very complex when entering the inland areas. "Piles of wood, destroyed houses, fallen poles, schools crushed by trees," he said. Despite this, Tito stated that the government continues to make maximum efforts to address these issues. He also conveyed several achievements made by the government in overcoming the problems. Tito reported, for instance, that all hospitals are now operational. For schools, out of 4,922 affected buildings, 4,834 have returned to their original schools. "We admit there are emergency classes because they are using existing government buildings, which are not ideal for schools, but the important thing is to get started. There are still tents, why? Generally, those in tents are the ones who were completely destroyed or swept away along the riverbanks. So, we need land for relocation, and finding land is sometimes not easy," he said.