98 Percent Demak Flood Surut, BNPB Starts Helping Residents Clean Up

Residents broke through the flood on Jalan Dusun Kedungbanteng, District, Karanganyar, Demak, Thursday 22 February 2024. (ANTARA PHOTO-Aji Styawan)

JAKARTA - The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has begun to focus on restoring or rehabilitating the post-flood environment that hit the Demak area, Central Java (Central Java).

"Based on the BPBD report, almost 98 percent have receded. This means that we have to switch on how environmental restoration is carried out so that when the potential for flooding and rain occurs again we can minimize the risk of flooding," said Head of the BNPB Operations Control Center (Pusdalops) Bambang Surya Putra in his statement, Sunday, February 25, quoted by Antara.

Bambang said the results of a rapid assessment conducted by the Demak Regency BPBD stated that the flood had begun to recede in almost 98 percent of the area. The displaced residents have also gradually returned home.

According to him, environmental rehabilitation is carried out so that affected residents can return to normal life.

The restoration of the environment, he said, included helping residents clean their homes and streets from mud and garbage, as well as cleaning drainage channels.

In addition to public and social facilities, self-cleaning of the house also needs to be supported.

Bambang said that BNPB had planned to provide assistance such as cleaning equipment for households and spraying disinfectants in every affected house yesterday.

Bambang hopes that the efforts made can help the affected people start their lives again.

"So we need to support cleaning independently, as well as support with water pumps and tank cars that may not have electricity yet turned on, so there needs to be clean water support, this must be done as part of accelerating emergency handling," he said.

In addition, the government continues to accelerate emergency handling in various ways, including the implementation of the Weather Modification Technology (TMC) operation to reduce and reduce rainfall as a mitigation in the upstream region.