Rainy Season Arrives, Kendari Mayor Asks Residents To Beware Of Landslides And Floods

Illustration- Landslide in the Lorong Sorungga area, Kemaraya Village, West Kendari District, Kendari City/Via ANTARA

KENDARI - Mayor of Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, Sulkarnain Kadir appealed to all communities in his area to be aware of the potential for landslides and floods during the rainy season.

"We always appeal to the whole community, in extreme weather like this, the rainy season, wind and so on, we ask all people in disaster-prone areas to increase their vigilance," said Sulkarnain in Kendari, Antara, Thursday, July 14.

For people who are on the slopes or on the cliffs of the area to be aware of the potential for landslides, and coordinate with the lurah or sub-district in carrying out mitigation efforts from an early age.

"If there are trees that must be anticipated to avoid landslides, they will be immediately reported together with the local government, we will tackle them, at least the lurah and sub-district head," said the mayor.

In addition, the Mayor also asked the Heads of RT and RT to invite their residents to do community service, especially cleaning the drainage in their respective neighborhoods so that there is no blockage of water flow when it rains in order to avoid flooding.

"From now on, the RT/RW are moving to do community service cleaning so that the rain doesn't come, we are not ready and it overflows, and in the end we will also be the ones who will be bothered with these situations," said the mayor.

Meanwhile, regarding the existence of residents who experienced landslides, the Mayor said he was concerned.

He has ordered the local Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) to immediately take minimal action to deal with emergency conditions.

"After that, only then will we assess the losses suffered by the community and then later verified by the Inspectorate. We ensure that it is possible to be assisted, so that we can immediately distribute the assistance," said the Mayor.

Previously, the Head of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Division of the Kendari BPBD Aris Manda said that so far his party had recorded more than 10 landslides in the capital city of Southeast Sulawesi Province as a result of heavy rainfall.

"There are a lot of landslides, there are about 10 points. But until now there has not been time to data because one has not been completed in the data, there is another landslide. During this rainy season, there have been a number of landslides," said Aris.

He said landslides due to high-intensity rainfall that recently occurred were scattered in the Mandonga, Kemaraya and Kendari sub-districts.

"If the rainfall is so high, on average I see these landslides which are mountainous, especially if like the one in Mandonga Village, the soil has started to dry up, finally bringing the water down," said Aris Manda.