Floods Make Economy In North Gorontalo Regency Weak, Residents Ask Local Government To Act Quickly

Illustration of a flood in Gorontalo. (Pexels.com/Pok Rie)

GORONTALO - A number of areas in Gorontalo Province were hit by floods. One of the affected areas is North Gorontalo Regency (Gorut).

Residents in Gorut Regency hope that flood management in their area can be accelerated. This is because floods have an impact on the sluggishness of activities including the economy, because they are tired of saving property as well as themselves and family members.

"We hope that the local government can immediately take countermeasures," said Nifa Lihawa, 61, a resident of Milango Village, Tomilito District, as quoted by Antara, Sunday, March 20.

Floods are a regular in the village, but until now no efforts have been made to accelerate the response. Even though the area is a producer of agricultural commodities, it is also a village that is crossed by several other villages.

It is natural that the flood is very disturbing all activities of residents in the village and surrounding villages.

"It's been raining for a while, the flood has inundated people's houses. Especially in Dusun Milango Bawah, the water level is always extreme or reaches more than an adult's chest even though this hamlet is the entrance to other villages, such as Bubode and Leyao Villages. So there needs to be a solution from local government to deal with flooding quickly," he said again.

The head of Milango village, Eman Kadir, said that severe flooding always inundated the village due to overflowing water from the Bubode river that crosses the area.

Plus the river mouth is at the end of Milango Village, so water from the Bubode and Leyao watersheds will accumulate in this village. And if the downstream conditions of the river are no longer able to accommodate the debit of water, settlements and village roads will surely be submerged.

His party, he said, reported the condition to the Regency Government intensively considering that residents continued to complain about flooding. This Sunday's flooding is quite severe because the entire hamlet is submerged with an average water level of 1 meter.

Floods not only submerged settlements, but facilities including Early Childhood Education (PAUD) buildings, village offices and mosques as well as the village's main road.

Until now, Eman has not received exact data on the number of affected residents because it is still raining in the area.