Minister PU Says Aceh Becomes a Region Affected by Severe Floods in Sumatra at the End of November

JAKARTA - The government is still continuing to carry out disaster handling and response efforts in flood-affected areas of Sumatra at the end of November 2025.

Minister of Public Works (PU) Dody Hanggodo said that a number of areas in Aceh Province were still isolated. One of them is the Central Aceh area which is still in the process of opening access.

"From our monitoring, the worst is Aceh. Because Aceh now, right, Central Aceh is not 100 percent open, it is still isolated," said Dody in a media briefing on the Preparedness of the Christmas 2025 and New Year 2026 Holiday Infrastructure in the PU Ministry Auditorium, Jakarta, Thursday, December 18.

Even though some of the access has been opened, Dody said, vehicles that can pass are still very limited, where large vehicles cannot enter the location.

This condition has caused the distribution of assistance in a number of new points to only be carried out through air routes.

Meanwhile, in West Sumatra, Dody said, the regency area was the most affected.

Many roads and bridges in the area were damaged and must be repaired immediately.

Based on data as of December 17, 2025, the Ministry of PU has identified as many as 1,413 points of damage to infrastructure affected by disasters.

The figure consists of 477 points in Aceh, 419 points affected by flooding and 58 points affected by landslides.

Then in North Sumatra (Sumut) there were 306 points, consisting of 180 points affected by flooding and 126 points affected by landslides. Then in West Sumatra (Sumbar) there were 630 points, consisting of 427 due to flooding and 203 due to landslides.

A total of 831 heavy equipment has been distributed to disaster-affected areas, consisting of 315 heavy equipment from the Ministry of PU and 519 heavy equipment from infrastructure BUMN partners.

Previously, the PU Ministry had also reported the progress of the recovery of roads and bridges affected by the disaster in Aceh. One of the latest achievements, the Genting Gerbang-Celala-Batas Aceh Tengah/Nagan Raya road section has been reconnected and can be used by two-wheeled vehicles.

Access from the Nagan Raya side is still in the repair phase, especially on the connecting road to the Krueng Beutong Bridge.

Apart from these sections, the recovery of roads and bridges after the disaster in Aceh also showed positive developments. The Banda Aceh-Meureudu City Road has now been reconnected as the main access from the western region to the northern coast of Aceh.

The Meureudu-Batas Pidie Jaya/Bireuen Road has also been functioning again after the bridge abutment collapsed was completed. The bridge was declared functional since December 12, 2025.

In the eastern part of Aceh, the Lhokseumawe/Batas Aceh Utara-Langsa City Road has also been able to be passed after the sediment cleaning which was completed on December 10, 2025. The handling process is still ongoing on the Langsa City Road-Kuala Simpang City Road, with a target completion of December 19, 2025.

The road section of Kota Kuala Simpang-Batas in North Sumatra Province has also been functional and can be passed by all types of vehicles.

However, some access points to the signal are still limited, and the cleaning of mud and wood materials continues.

Furthermore, there is the Kutacane-North Sumatra Province border road which has also been reopened. The operation of this section opens an important access to the southern Aceh region.

The PU Ministry also continues to accelerate the ongoing work on a number of roads that are severely affected and still cut off due to flash floods and landslides in Aceh Province.

One of them is the Bireuen City Road - Bireuen Border / North Aceh which was cut off due to the collapse of the Krueng Tingkeum / Kuta Blang Bridge.