The Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Denies The Issue Of Martabe Mining Being The Cause Of North Sumatra's Flash Flood

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) denied that Martabe gold mine or PT Agincourt Resources (PTAR), a subsidiary of PT United Tractors Tbk. (UNTR) is one of the causes that exacerbate flash floods in North Sumatra.

Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Yuliot Tanjung emphasized that the mining location belonging to PTAR was far from the flood location.

"No! He said the work area is far away," Yuliot told the media crew, quoted on Tuesday, December 2.

When asked whether the cause of the flood was due to illegal logging, Yuliot also admitted that he could not confirm this. However, he said that the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Bahlil Lahadalia, would conduct a direct review of the flood site.

This is also intended so that the implementation of energy supply recovery to the location of flash floods can be accelerated.

"Checked in the field. The Minister will see from above tomorrow," said Yuliot.

Previously, metereology expert and lecturer from the Atmospheric Science Expert Group, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Dr Muhammad Rais Abdillah S Si, M Sc, explained that the first cause of the major disaster occurred, namely high rainfall. As is known, Sumatra is at the peak of the rainy season.

"Indeed, the Tapanuli region is in the rainy season, because northern Sumatra has a rainy pattern throughout the year or two peaks of rain in one year, and is currently at its peak," he said as quoted by the ITB website.

Based on records from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the island's rainfall reaches 150-300 millimeters. Thus, the recent rain in Sumatra is included in the extreme category.

According to Rais' observation, the vorticity or cyclonic circulation that occurred around northern Sumatra also exacerbated rainfall. This phenomenon then developed into a Tropical Senyar Cyclone system, which occurred around the Malacca Strait and headed west.

"On November 24, there was already a rotating system from the Malaysian Peninsula. In meteorology, we refer to it as vortex, although at that time it was still in the form of seeds and his eyes were not clearly visible," he explained.