The Story Of The Cipinang Melayu Flood Refuge

Cipinang Melayu flood refugees who took refuge in the mosque of the Borobudur University area, Kalimalang, East Jakarta. (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

JAKARTA - Hundreds of residents of the Cipinang Melayu area, East Jakarta fled to the mosque building at Borobudur University, East Jakarta. Residents fled after the floods hit their homes after rain in Jakarta on Tuesday, December 31 to Wednesday, January 1 yesterday.

"There are still many residents who are displaced. Data as of January 2 at 15.00 WIB, the number of residents affected by the flood is 1,280 out of 320 families. Meanwhile, there are 986 refugees," said Head of Cipinang Melayu Urban Village Agus Sulaeman, when contacted by VOI via text message, Thursday, January 2.

Agus said that the food needs for the refugees at the post were sufficient as well as the medicines that were distributed from the surrounding community health centers. According to him, currently residents need donations of clothes, especially underwear and toiletries.

"If what is needed now is toiletries, cleaning tools, and clean clothes, especially underwear," said Agus.

The VOI team then visited the evacuation area in the Kalimalang Highway area, at which time the atmosphere of Borobudur University was so busy and residents were passing by. A number of volunteers mingled among the refugees to take care of their needs.

Several residents also appeared to be queuing when officers distributed clean clothes and baby food porridge. Some of the refugees also lay down in the mosque building with their families.

Cipinang Melayu flood refugees need clothes. (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

In the midst of the density of refugees, we met one of the officers who was involved in the evacuation named Arif. To us, this 28 year old man told us that he participated in the evacuation on Wednesday, January 1 in the morning or when the floods hit the Cipinang Melayu area. He said the evacuation movement was carried out by combing a number of RTs in the area.

"We combed from the far left area, that was near the edge of the river from RT 08 to RT 01 or at the very end of Cipinang Melayu. My team and I focused on moving to RT 04," said Arif when we met at the refugee post at the University of Borobudur, Jalan Raya Kalimalang, East Jakarta, Thursday, January 2.

One rescue team, said Arif, consisted of eight people consisting of four who were on board, two on the outside of the front of the ship and two on the outside of the back of the ship. There is no priority when helping victims, whoever needs to evacuate immediately helps him.

"If we do ask for help, we will immediately transport it according to the capacity of the ship," he explained.

A volunteer named Arif who helps the Cipinang Melayu flood refugees. (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

He said nearly 50 percent of the victims who were evacuated were elderly and some of them were sick. When asked about the elderly, Arif's face suddenly saddened. He remembered an elderly couple who had been given help late. As a result, one of the elderly died.

"So in one house there are two elderly people, the husband and wife are trapped in their condition. Nobody knows. We saw that in the house there were two elderly people, one husband was sick and one wife was floating, died. Flood conditions were about three meters more," he said.

Cipinang Melayu flood refugees. (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

He added, the two elderly may be late to evacuate like other residents because they are sick. "When we went around, we checked the houses where the elderly were. Including the elderly's house. We knocked, when we opened the husband who survived, whose wife was floating," added Arif.

In carrying out an evacuation, there are a number of obstacles he has experienced. One of them is the size of the ship which is too big for the Cipinang Melayu area which is a densely populated area. "The boat is too big for a narrow alley," he said.

Assistance from the Minister of Social Affairs

Nur Hasanah grieves because her mother passed away. In Arif's story, the elderly who died as a result of fleeing late was his mother. When met at the refugee camp, Nur said that at that time the floods hit her parents' house, reaching a height of about three meters.

At that time, the father who survived, Muhammad Ali (85) was in good health as was his mother, Siti Nawa (75). It's just that both of them were indeed late in evacuating when the floods hit. Currently, Siti's body has been buried.

"Like lying on the bed. Floating. So he was on the bed," said Nur.

As a result of the flood that killed her mother, Nur received assistance from the Minister of Social Affairs Juliari Pieter Batubara of Rp. 15 million. It's just that he doesn't know what to do with the assistance. Not only that, he also hasn't seen the condition of his house which was affected by the flood.