Ambon Prepared For Extreme Rain Disasters Until July 19, City Government Asks For Help From The Center

Illustration of heavy rain accompanied by lightning. (Unsplash-Alex Duhhanov)

JAKARTA - The Ambon City Government (Pemkot) has set a disaster alert status for the next 14 days following floods, landslides, and fallen trees, due to extreme rain conditions.

"The previous disaster alert status has ended on July 2, 2024 and we saw approximately three days of escalation, so we again set 14 days into disaster alert status, starting July 6-19, 2024," said Ambon Mayor Dominggus N Kaya, in Ambon, Maluku, Sunday, July 7, confiscated by Antara.

Dominggus said the Ambon City Government had taken steps that had to be taken by Regional Apparatus Organizations (OPD) and relevant stakeholders, as well as making a study of requests for assistance to the central government.

"All related OPDs, namely BPBD, PUPR Service, Social Service, Agriculture Service, Kominfo Service, and BMKG have coordinated to see what has been and must be done," he said.

He stated that the disaster incident on Friday, July 5, had been handled. The PUPR office has been assigned to design and prepare gabions and BPBDs to have also distributed aid to residents to prevent more widespread avalanche points.

The ready-to-eat food assistance for 13 heads of families (KK) who fled to their families has also been carried out by the Social Service, by delivering ready-to-eat food at the house.

The flood disaster, he continued, also caused farmers in Waiheru and Passo to be threatened with crop failure, so the Agriculture Service had been dispatched to coordinate.

His party appealed to people living in disaster-prone areas to remain vigilant and monitor the warnings issued by BMKG and the City Government on social media.

"For residents of Ambon city to stay alert and monitor warnings from the BMKG as well as from posts circulated through social media, we have directed the warning to be carried out per day and per hour. The point is to remain vigilant for families who are at disaster-prone points," he said.

The public is also asked to immediately report to BPBD through RT/RW devices or village/district governments in the event of a disaster.

The municipal government is also intensely monitoring disasters, weather, water level, wave height, earthquakes, tsunamis through BMKG and monitoring the water level of the Ambon City Government Command Center.