The Sumatra Disaster Is Not Just Because Of The Rain

As of Sunday, December 7, BNPB recorded 940 deaths, 276 missing, and more than 5 thousand injuries from floods and landslides in Sumatra. And, this figure is likely to continue to move.

However, this tragedy is impossible to read only as a natural disaster. Extreme rainfall is just a lighter, it looks like the fuel has been prepared for a long time, the bare forest, mining permits upstream of the river, and the clearing of oil palm land that does not recognize the pause.

The Ministry of Environment and government officials have ordered a number of companies in Batang Toru and Garoga Watersheds to stop operations. Environmental audits are running, but questions are not simple. How much forest area has been lost?

Forest Watch Indonesia data, as reported by coverage of 6 noted, more than 8 million hectares of Sumatran forest have been lost in the last 30 years, mostly for plantations and mines. Hulu, which is supposed to be a water reservoir, turns into open land. The river loses its sponge. When it rains, the water slides without brakes.

Environmental expert, Mahawan Karunisa, reminded VOI that responsibility does not stop in the government. "Legal permits do not guarantee practice in the field," he said. Many concessions change hands, are used without limits, and are allowed to loot the island's body.

Audits are important. But audits without follow-up are just empty messages. What is needed is real recovery. Replanting upstream forests, rearranging permits, and severe sanctions.

Still citing Forest Watch Indonesia data released from coverage6 shows, in the 2017 '2021 period, the Sumatran Region lost around 428 thousand hectares of natural forests. This figure had dropped in 2021'2023, but jumped again in 2023'2024 to around 222 thousand hectares in just one year.

Meanwhile, data from Nusantara Atlas, which was summarized by Reuters and a number of institutions such as Global Forest Watch, shows that from 2001 to 2024, Sumatra Island has lost about 4.4 million hectares of forest, making it one of the areas with the highest deforestation rate in Indonesia.

In the working meeting of Commission IV of the DPR RI, Raja Juli Antoni was asked to resign from the position of Minister of Forestry. He was considered to have failed to control forest governance so that disasters spread in three provinces. There were even voices who said the responsibility was thrown at President Prabowo Subianto. The debate got louder, but floods could not wait for the politics to end.

In the field, residents fled in a big wave. BNPB data shows that more than three million people were directly affected. Some are still looking for families. Others are looking for clean water. No one asked if rain was wrong. It could be, they know the answer. This is what humans do.

Because when the permit is issued without limits on the carrying capacity of the environment, the disaster is only a matter of time. And at that time, it has become a mass grave.

Then what about after this? Will the permit be permanently revoked? Will the forest be restored as a life support, not an industrial cashier room? Or are we forgetting it? Don't let it happen. This is a very expensive lesson.

We appreciate the government and various groups working hard to help and restore infrastructure that is destroyed or badly damaged. However, if upstream remains barren and corporations return to work with green promises on paper, then the Sumatra flood is not the last chapter, but the opening episode. This disaster is not a matter of rain. This is a matter of a system that seems to be left wrong.