Flooding Repeated in Villa Indah Tegalbesar, BPBD Jember Acknowledges Staff Limitations

JEMBER - The Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Jember Regency is moving quickly to meet the needs of residents affected by flooding that flooded Villa Indah Tegalbesar Housing, Jember Regency, East Java.

Head of Emergency and Logistics BPBD Jember Zughrinada Wahyudi Hidayat said that his party immediately deployed personnel and emergency resources to handle the flood in the area.

"We are deploying personnel and emergency resources to deal with the flooding that submerged the housing," Zughrinada said, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, December 17.

Flood handling is carried out in a coordinated manner with a number of regional device organizations (OPD) and volunteers. The main focus is directed at the safety of affected residents and the fulfillment of basic needs in flood locations.

"BPBD together with PU Bina Marga, Cipta Karya, Social Services, volunteers, and Destana focus on emergency handling. We have distributed logistical assistance, two clean water tanks have been dropped, and a public kitchen has been established to meet the needs of residents," he said.

He explained that this time the flood hit the same area as in previous years. Although it did not cause any casualties, the water puddles damaged household furniture and forced some residents to save themselves with makeshift equipment.

Zughrinada admitted that handling floods in Jember Regency faced major challenges, especially personnel limitations. Currently, the BPBD Jember Rapid Response Team (TRC) only has 17 people, while the flood points that must be handled reach 21 locations in various sub-districts.

"This condition is certainly a challenge for us in the field, but we will continue to do our best to handle it," he said.

BPBD Jember also appealed to the public to remain vigilant considering that the potential for extreme weather is expected to continue until the end of February 2026.

"We urge residents to prepare a Disaster Standby Bag containing important documents, valuables, and long-lasting food. Many residents report losing important letters because the flood came suddenly," he said.

The Jember Regency Government ensures that a thorough evaluation of flood-prone areas continues to be carried out by prioritizing the safety of residents. BPBD Jember emphasized that it would remain on standby as long as the potential for extreme weather still took place.

Meanwhile, one of the residents of Villa Indah Tegalbesar Housing, Fira, admitted that this flood was the worst since he had a house in the area.

"The water entering the house is quite high. This is the most severe flood," he said.

He revealed that when he first bought the house, he did not know that the area was on the riverbank. He only realized this fact later after seeing that two residential blocks around the location had never been built.

"We didn't know at first that this was a river bank. Now we only realized after two blocks were not built. The embankment was made, but it finally broke through," said Fira.

He added that a similar flood had occurred in 2021. At that time, residents only received limited assistance from the developer. Until the flood occurred again this time, residents admitted that they had not received assistance from the housing developer.