5 Houses in Bekasi Drift off by Flood Due to Broken-Down Citarum Embankment

Illustration (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - At least 13 houses were damaged by the flood due to the breakdown of the Citarum River embankment in Sumberurip Village, Pebayuran District, Bekasi Regency, West Java.

"The 13 houses affected are just the preliminary data collection results, the results are preliminary until this Wednesday afternoon", said Bekasi Regent Eka Supria Atmaja in Cikarang, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, February 24.

Eka said that dozens of residents' houses were damaged moderately, severely, and collapsed so that they could not be occupied again and even five of them were known to have been washed away by the flood.

His party has now started to collect data on residents' houses affected by the flood, especially in locations where the water conditions have started to recede.

"Data collection is still ongoing, data will certainly increase tomorrow according to field observations", he said.

"The 13 houses that were eroded by the flood until they collapsed were recorded to be in Pebayuran District, to be precise, around the location of the collapsed embankment", he added.

The Bekasi Regency Government has allocated a budget for repairing the houses of residents affected by the floods, however, the technical assistance will later be given through the village head according to the category of house damage.

"We make sure the government is there to assist flood victims", he said.

Also, the local government has carried out mapping for handling the impact of floods by improving river flow areas such as repairing floodgates, embankments, river normalization, to infrastructure damaged by floods.

"We also continue to coordinate with West Java and the central government regarding the handling of collapsed embankments due to flooding, especially the broken embankment in the Citarum River", he said.