The Social Affairs Ministry has set up five warehouses for meeting the basic needs of those living in some flooded areas in West Kalimantan.

“This is our effort to accelerate the handling of flood victims in West Kalimantan Province, as the situation of the affected communities is serious and requires immediate assistance,” Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini noted in Pontianak on Thursday.

The minister decided to set up warehouses for fulfilling basic needs at five locations in the disaster area as a means of ensuring that the victims have access to supplies of logistical needs.

“Our staff is still at the flooded locations, one of which is in Melawi that requires buffer stock. We have not only set up one but five (warehouses) as an anticipatory measure for residents facing difficulties in meeting their logistics needs since transportation routes are cut off,” she elaborated.

Establishment of the warehouses was deemed necessary, so that flood victims would not wait for assistance, which would take two to three days by land, as the access was cut off. In such conditions, it is feared that residents will find it difficult to meet their food requirements.

“Hence, by building as many as five ‘buffer stocks’ at flood locations, residents can immediately become independent and no longer wait for help from us,” she affirmed.

Rismaharini stressed the importance of prevention or mitigation measures in future to minimize or anticipate floods that often occur in several areas in West Kalimantan.

“It is said that this flood was the most severe, for which mitigation or prevention efforts are deemed necessary, so that floods like this do not occur or at least reduce them,” she noted.

To this end, she stated that preventive measures and anticipatory steps for the next century to come were required.

Source: Antara News