Officials in flood-hit parts of the country reported shortages of food, shelter and medicine as the death toll reached 950 following weeks of heavy rain.
A slew of tropical storms and monsoon rains has pummelled South-East and South Asia, triggering landslides and flash floods from the rainforests of Indonesia’s western Sumatera island to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka.
“Everything is lacking, especially medical personnel. We are short on doctors,” Muzakir Manaf, governor of Indonesia’s Aceh province, told reporters late on Sunday.
“Basic necessities are also important. It’s not just one or two items.”
Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said yesterday that at least 950 people in Aceh, North Sumatera and West Sumatera had been killed, while 274 were missing.
The downpours and subsequent landslides injured at least 5,000 people and devastated infrastructure.
Hospitals, schools and offices are in ruins, while many bridges have been destroyed, cutting off communities.
Costs to rebuild after the disaster could run up to 51.82 trillion rupiah (RM12.7bil), the BNPB said late on Sunday.
In Banda Aceh, long queues formed for drinking water and fuel and prices of basic commodities such as eggs were skyrocketing, an AFP correspondent said.
In Sri Lanka, the military deployed thousands of extra troops to aid recovery efforts there after a devastating cyclone cut a swathe of destruction killing 627 people.
More than two million people – nearly 10% of the population – have been affected by Cyclone Ditwah, the worst on the island this century.
Sri Lanka earlier expected further heavy monsoon rains yesterday, topping 5cm in many places, the Disaster Management Centre said.
It issued warnings of further landslides.
Army chief Lasantha Rodrigo said 38,500 security personnel had been deployed to boost recovery and clean-up operations in flood-affected and landslide-hit areas, nearly doubling the initial deployment.
“Since the disaster, security forces have been able to rescue 31,116 people who were in distress.”
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake unveiled a recovery package, offering 10 million rupees (RM132,485) for victims to buy land in safer areas and rebuild.
There is also livelihood support and cash assistance to replace kitchen utensils and bedding and to buy food.
It is not clear how much the relief package will cost the government, which is still emerging from economic meltdown in 2022 when it ran out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports.
Dissanayake has said the government cannot fund reconstruction alone and has appealed for foreign assistance, including from the International Monetary Fund. — AFP
