Puan Urges Government To Move Fast About Floods: No Residents Can Wait For Day-to-Day Assistance

Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan Maharani (ANTARA/HO-DPR)

Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan Maharani, asked the government to move quickly to deal with floods and landslides that hit Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra.

He emphasized that the disaster scale that caused tens of thousands of residents to evacuate, damage to houses, affected schools, and cut off national road access, must be responded to by an alert and coordinated emergency response operation.

"Emergency response operations need to be carried out swiftly starting from the evacuation of residents, search and rescue (SAR), to accelerating the distribution of aid for isolated areas," said Puan to reporters, Friday, November 28.

Puan emphasized the importance of ensuring that the affected residents did not wait for days of assistance.

He urged all relevant institutions to ensure the distribution of logistics, health services, clean water, and protection for vulnerable groups to run without obstacles.

"The speed of response greatly determines the safety of citizens and prevents things from getting worse," he said.

He also highlighted the breaking of national roads and provinces at a number of points that hindered the distribution of aid.

According to Puan, the government needs to immediately open this access because the restoration of roads and bridges is not just an infrastructure problem, but is directly related to education, economic activities, food distribution, and the mobility of health workers during times of crisis.

Puan also encouraged the acceleration of river normalization, strengthening embankments, rehabilitation of upstream watersheds (DAS), and the construction of village-based early warning systems. He also asked the government to ensure spatial compliance so that development does not occur in disaster-prone areas.

"Prevention must be a priority, not just handling after a disaster. Without comprehensive steps, incidents like this will continue to repeat themselves," he said.

As Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan appealed to all DPR members from the electoral districts to be present in the field to monitor the condition of residents, help accelerate the distribution of aid, and coordinate with local governments, BPBD, TNI-Polri, and volunteers.

The people must be present with their people when the situation is most in need. Direct presence is very important to ensure that the entire emergency response process runs effectively and no residents are missed," said Puan.

Puan emphasized that the Indonesian House of Representatives will oversee the government's steps from the emergency response to recovery phase. According to him, public safety is the country's highest mandate.

"No one should feel abandoned. The state must be fully present," concluded Puan.