Flood Trends in Aceh Tamiang Start to Shorten and Need to Be Anticipated

JAKARTA = The Leuser Conservation Forum (FKL) sees a trend of flooding in Aceh Tamiang, Aceh Province, getting faster, even almost resembling Southeast Asia which is now a cycle every three years, so that it needs to be seriously anticipated. damage.

"If we look at the trend, the flooding in Tamiang is getting shorter. It is usually once every 10 years. This is now 2022, 2023 and then 2025 floods. There is damage that we must anticipate," said Senior Advisor FKL, Rudi Putra in Aceh Tamiang, Friday.

The statement was made by Rudi Putra during a reflection activity one month after the Aceh Tamiang flood with the theme: "Tracing the Causes of the Aceh Tamiang Natural Disaster that Continues to Recur".

Rudi said that if the government and civilians in Aceh Tamiang still did not want to protect their forests and rivers, then in three years the area would face a similar disaster again.

"There needs to be a radical change that we do, first of all we are no longer maintaining forests, but we must restore forests, it is mandatory if there is damaged forest," he said.

The radical change that Rudi Putra referred to, one of which is that there should be no more oil palm plants in forest areas. Both illegal oil palm plantations, companies and individuals, all must be restored.

"So there is no longer any term of using existing oil palm plantations in the forest, it is not allowed," he said.

In addition, continued Rudi, the river border must also be guarded. Considering that currently the establishment of oil palm is planted along the river basin. Therefore, it must be restored, otherwise the water level will continue to rise.

"Are we going to regulate zoning, yes, because in fact the regulations are 100 meters left and right of the river must be sterile, there must be no development, no mining activities and no oil palm plantations, so this is what must be known," he said.

According to him, efforts to normalize the river are also not a solution to dealing with flooding in Aceh Tamiang. In fact, on the contrary, it can increase flooding in certain places.

"Including the improvement of river embankments, it is not a permanent solution, because even though embankments have been built left and right, but the water period is higher, the result is the same," he said.

He stated that the best way to restore forests is that there should be no more roads built leading to forest areas, because it is the same as opening access for perambers.

On the other hand, continued Rudi, also do not give tolerance to companies and small communities that they can penetrate the forest or carry out illegal logging.

"The government must be aware, if it is still allowed with the concept because it has already happened, then our fate will continue to repeat like this and the impact is poverty," said Rudi.

Meanwhile, Field Manager (FM) Regional 1 FKL, Zul Asfi added, his party had identified the trigger for the flash flood in Aceh Tamiang on November 26, 2025, it was caused by hills in the forest area that collapsed due to continuous heavy rain.

"Many landslides in the upstream of the river are one of the main triggers of flash floods in Aceh Tamiang," said Zul Asfi.

FKL noted that the worst landslides occurred in Aras Sembilan Village, Blang Kandis, Jambo Rambong, Rantau Bintang, Pante Cempa to Bidari Beach, East Aceh Regency.

"Aceh Tamiang is prone to flooding because there are quite a lot of rivers as a water-holding district, from the upstream of Simpang Jernih Aceh Timur and Pining Gayo Lues," said Zul Asfi.