Residents Of Kutamekar Sukabumi Meredang, Builder Builds Housing Due To Floods In Citizens' Settlements

Conditions of one of the houses in Kutamekar Village, Kelurahan/District of Palabuhanratu, Sukabumi Regency, West Java/ANTARA

SUKABUMI - Residents of Kutamekar Village, Sukabumi Regency, West Java gave a strong warning to developers of Pesona Farida Regency Housing in Palabuhanratu because construction projects often trigger flooding. "This strong warning is because the developers do not pay attention to the impact of the housing development, so it often causes flooding in residential areas in Kuta Mekar Village, Palabuhanratu Village/District as happened on Saturday," said Head of RT 03/10 Kutamekar Village Andi Suhendi in Sukabumi, Antara, Sunday, October 23 evening. Dozens of houses were affected by flooding with a height of almost one meter. Prior to the construction of housing, the area had never experienced flooding like this. However, after the Pesona Farida Regency Housing construction project in a few weeks, three floods have occurred with water levels of up to one meter. As a result of the flood, apart from causing the residents' environment to become dirty, it also damaged the property of the affected communities. Even the flood threatened the safety of residents because it triggered landslides. Residents have also protested several times, but did not get an exact answer, only a promise from the developer to immediately resolve the problem and promise to compensate the affected communities. In addition, his party has also reported this incident to the Palabuhanratu sub-district head Ali Iskandar, even the sub-district head gave a warning and reminded the developer to realize complaints from residents. This flood was triggered by the flow of rivers flowing around the construction-affected project site, such as narrow flow and silting. As a result, when heavy rains or floods occur, the river can no longer accommodate water discharge, causing the river water to overflow and flood residential areas in Kutamekar Village. "We just want the developers to pay attention to the surrounding community environment, because residents have never interfered with the development process. However, if the conditions are like this, we will not hesitate to ask the Sukabumi Regency Government to postpone development until the residents' complaints are considered by the developers," he added. Contacted separately, Project Manager of PT Ratu Bangun Developer Pesona Farida Regency Palabuhanratu Angga apologized to residents for the flood that submerged a number of houses in Kutamekar Village which were allegedly triggered by the construction of housing developed by his party. Anticipating further flooding, his party admitted that he was building a retention lake whose purpose was to accommodate water discharge, both rivers and excessive rain so that the water did not overflow which could cause flooding in local residents' settlements. He continued, in this development, his party has completed various permits including Analysis on Environmental Impacts (Amdal). But he admitted that because the retention lake is still in construction, the impact could not be fully functioning if there was rain, it could trigger flooding due to increasing the flow of river water in residential areas. "This condition is indeed a concern of us and we hope that in the future there will be no similar disasters that will have an impact on local residents, we also apologize profusely to the people affected by the flood," he said. He added that the developer will directly review the settlements affected by the flood, especially in RW 09 and 10 to collect data related to the allocation of compensation for the affected communities.