- Rains and floods kill 1,790 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
- Deforestation causes landslides and floods in Indonesia, environmentalists say.
- People not only die from floods, but also from hunger: state media.
Ruinous floods and landslides have killed more than 900 people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the country's disaster management agency said on Saturday, with fears that famine could further increase the toll.
A string of tropical storms and monsoon rains has hit Southeast and South Asia, causing landslides and flash floods from the rainforests of Sumatra to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka.
More than 1,790 people have died in natural disasters that have occurred in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam over the past week.
In the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, floods washed away roads, covered homes in silt and cut off supplies.
Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf said response teams were still searching for bodies in “waist-deep” mud.
However, famine was one of the most serious threats currently facing remote and inaccessible villages.
“Many people need basic needs. Many areas remain intact in remote areas of Aceh,” he told reporters.
“People don't die from floods, but from hunger. That's right.”
Entire villages were razed to the ground in the rainforest-covered Aceh Tamiang region, Muzakir said.
“The Aceh Tamiang region is completely destroyed, from top to bottom, to the roads and to the sea.
“Many towns and subdistricts are now just names,” he said.
Fachrul Rozi, a victim of the Aceh Tamiang floods, said he had spent the past week crammed into an old commercial building with other people who had fled the rising waters.
“We ate what was available, helping each other with the few provisions each resident brought,” he said. AFP.
“We slept crammed together.”
Aceh resident Munawar Liza Zainal said he felt “betrayed” by the Indonesian government, which has so far ignored pressure to declare a national disaster.
“This is an extraordinary disaster that must be met with extraordinary measures,” he said. AFPechoing frustrations expressed by other flood victims.
“If the state of national disaster is declared later, what's the point?”
Declaring a national disaster would free up resources and help government agencies coordinate their response.
Analysts have suggested that Indonesia may be reluctant to declare a disaster – and seek additional foreign help – because it would show it is not up to the task.
Indonesia's government insisted this week that it could handle the fallout.
Climate calamity
The extent of the devastation has just become clear in other parts of Sumatra as swollen rivers recede and flood waters recede.
AFP Photographs showed muddy villagers rescuing silt-encrusted furniture from flooded homes in Aek Ngadol, northern Sumatra.
Humanitarian groups are concerned that the scale of the calamity may be unprecedented, even for a nation prone to natural disasters.
Indonesia's death toll rose to 908 on Saturday, according to the disaster management agency, with 410 people missing.
The death toll in Sri Lanka rose to 607 on Friday, as the government warned that fresh rains increased the risk of new landslides.
Thailand has reported 276 deaths and Malaysia two, while at least two people have died in Vietnam after heavy rain triggered a series of landslides.
Seasonal monsoon rains are a feature of life in Southeast Asia, flooding rice fields and fueling the growth of other key crops.
However, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly throughout the region.
Environmentalists and the Indonesian government have also suggested that logging and deforestation exacerbated landslides and flooding in Sumatra.
