Padang City Government Inventory Infrastructure Damage Due To Disaster

Officers cleaned up the remains of flood material in Padang City, West Sumatra. ANTARA/HO-Humas Padang City Government

PADANG - The City Government (Pemkot) of Padang, West Sumatra through the Public Works and Spatial Planning (PUPR) has begun to inventory infrastructure damage, especially for roads that have been cut off due to hydrometeorological disasters in the area.

"We always move quickly to eradicate infrastructure damage so that post-disaster management can also be carried out immediately," said Head of the Program and Construction Services Division of the Padang City PUPR Service Novianti in Padang, Antara, Tuesday, December 2.

Novianti said a number of points had been reviewed, including Jalan Batang Kabung Ganting-Koto Pulai in Koto Tangah District which was cut off due to flooding.

Conditions at the location, he said, were cut off by the road and the current road was a river. Furthermore, there are still several other points that will be inventoried immediately.

In addition to breaking roads at a number of points, hydrometeorological disasters in the area have also cut off and damaged a number of bridges, for example in Kuranji, Pauh and Koto Tangah.

On the other hand, the Padang PUPR Service also continues to intensify efforts to clean sediment and post-flood waste by deploying an emergency response team complete with heavy equipment.

"Since the first day of the disaster, we have sent excavators to clean up sediment and flood waste. To this day, 16 heavy equipment have worked in affected locations and 12 more units are in the process of being sent," explained the Head of the PUPR Office of Padang City Tri Hadiyanto.

The number of heavy equipment is dynamic and can increase according to field needs. In addition to relying on the PUPR's fleet, his party also cooperates with private parties, universities, state-owned enterprises, the Sumatra V River Basin Center (BWS) and the Management of West Sumatra Province Water Resources to accelerate handling.

In addition to heavy equipment, PUPR has also deployed 100 manual personnel spread to affected locations with a focus on handling points that cannot be reached by heavy equipment, including dense residential areas.

"Many sediments enter people's homes and it is impossible to take them with heavy equipment. Therefore, apart from tools, we have also deployed 100 manual personnel," he said.