Vice President Gibran Tegur Governor of South Kalimantan Muhidin: Please Listen to People's Complaints

Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka holds a dialogue with students and residents after reviewing the houses of residents affected by flooding in Sungai Tabuk, Banjar, South Kalimantan/ANTARA/Tumpal Andani Aritonang

JAKARTA - Vice President (Wapres) Gibran Rakabuming Raka asked the Governor of South Kalimantan (Kalsel) Muhidin to empathize and always respond to and accept criticism/suggestions from residents regarding the repeated flooding in the province.

Vice President Gibran, while reviewing the flood in the Tabuk River, Banjar Regency, South Kalimantan, received a dialogue from the Student Executive Board (BEM) alliance across South Kalimantan to convey the many complaints from residents about the flood disaster in this province and continue to recur.

In front of the Vice President, the BEM alliance throughout South Kalimantan expressed disappointment with the Governor of South Kalimantan who was considered less serious with the condition of residents who had been affected by the flood for more than a week and their houses were still flooded with water up to the waist of adults, even in some villages the flood water had reached the roof of the house.

"Please listen to this governor, this is the people's complaint, starting to think about long-term solutions. Maybe the spatial layout still has something that is not appropriate, the factor of the mine, and others that trigger flooding," said the Vice President as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, January 8.

The Vice President also received complaints from residents who were disappointed with the statement of the Governor of South Kalimantan concluding that the flood incident in Balangan Regency in December 2025 was not a flash flood and concluded that it had nothing to do with mining activities and other environmental destruction.

Vice President Gibran asked the Governor of South Kalimantan to accept suggestions and input from students and residents who complained that the regional environmental management also contributed to flooding in a number of districts/cities in the province, in addition to being caused by high rainfall.

"Governor, please hear this complaint from students as well. But I also ask students not to just criticize, there must also be constructive solutions," said Gibran.

After reviewing the flood in Banjar Regency, the Vice President, accompanied by the Head of Basarnas, Major General (Marsdya) TNI Mohammad Syafii, engaged in a dialogue with a student alliance that voiced that the local government should give serious attention to immediately find a solution so that flooding does not occur again during the rainy season.

Based on provisional data, the flood disaster in Banjar Regency has an impact on 9 sub-districts and 121 villages. A total of 23,133 houses were affected, with 13,732 of them still submerged.

The number of affected residents reached 42,082 families or 118,151 people, including 371 pregnant women, 687 babies, 2,145 toddlers, 4,356 children, 3,944 elderly, and 366 disabled people.