Nama : Indah Syahputri Siregar
Yayang Auliani Syah
Puzzle Causes of Large Floods in South Kalimantan
- The massive flood that hit the South Kalimantan region on January 12-13, 2021 sparked a long debate.
Apart from the extreme rainfall, many parties have blamed the cause of the flooding due to the massive
land clearing. This factor is then considered to have contributed to the creation of large floods in
Kalimantan.
This is because, apart from high rainfall, flooding also occurs because of the contribution of land clearing.
No doubt, the floods this time are even worse than in previous periods.
Based on his data, one of the uses for land clearing in Kalimantan is the creation of oil palm plantations.
However, the opening of this oil palm plantation is taking place continuously.
From year to year, the plantation area has increased and changed the surrounding conditions.
Between 2009 and 2011, there was an increase in plantation area by 14 percent and continued to increase
in the following years by 72 percent in 5 year
"As for mining, land openings increased by 13 percent in just 2 years. The area of mine openings in 2013
was 54,238 hectares," said Jefri, Friday (15/1/2021).
He also regrets the condition of forests in Kalimantan which are now turning into plantations. Land
clearing or changes in land cover also drive the pace of global climate change.
"Kalimantan, which used to be proud of its forests, has now turned into a monoculture oil palm plantation
and coal mine," he explained.
"Finally, it also affects and exacerbates extreme weather conditions, both in the dry season and the rainy
season," he said. Until Wednesday (20/1/2021), floods in South Kalimantan had killed 21 people. A total
of 342,987 people were affected, of which 63,608 were displaced. The infrastructure that was affected by
this disaster included 66,768 submerged houses, 18,294 meters of submerged roads, and 21 damaged
bridges.
Not only that, this flood also caused 18,356 hectares of agricultural land in 11 districts / cities in
Kalimantan to fail crops.
Rainfall and decreasing area of primary forest Meanwhile, the analysis of the National Aeronautics and
Space Agency (Lapan) shows that flooding in South Kalimantan is caused by high rainfall and decreasing
primary forest land.
These two causative factors are based on medium resolution remote sensing satellite data, where the
results of these observations are still estimations and have not been verified.
"This rainfall caused floods to hit South Kalimantan Province on January 13, 2021," said the Head of
Lapan's Remote Sensing Utilization Center, M Rokhis, in a written statement received by Kompas.com,
Sunday (17/1/2021).
Meanwhile, the results of the analysis of the Barito Watershed (DAS) show a decrease in forest area.
In a period of 10 years, there was a significant expansion of the plantation area, namely 219,000 hectares.
Nevertheless, Rokhis said that it was not certain whether the significant expansion of the plantation area
was due to oil palm plantations. "Because the data is from medium resolution satellite data, we cannot
determine palm oil or other plantations," he said. He said changes in land cover in the past 10 years could
provide an idea of the possibility of flooding in the Barito watershed.
The government denies that the polemic that caused the flooding in South Kalimantan has started to force
the Minister of Environment and Forestry (LHK) Siti Nurbaya Bakar to speak up.
Siti firmly denies the cause of flooding in South Kalimantan due to the shrinking of the Barito watershed
in South Kalimantan. He emphasized the origin of the floods in South Kalimantan due to weather
anomalies. "The cause of flooding in South Kalimantan is (due to) weather anomalies and not a matter of
forest area in the Barito watershed in South Kalimantan," said Siti as quoted from her Twitter account,
@SitiNurbayaLHK, Wednesday (20/1/2021).
, Kalimantan as a whole has a watershed area of 6.2 million hectares, of which 1.8 million hectares are
located in the Barito watershed area of South Kalimantan. Of the total Kalimantan watershed, 94.5
percent of the total upstream area of the Barito watershed is inside forest areas. Referring to 2019 data, as
much as 83.3 percent of the upstream area of the Barito watershed is still covered with natural forest,
while the remaining 1.3 percent is forest plantations. Thus, Siti claims, the upstream barito watershed is
still good. "In this case the upstream of the Barito watershed is still well preserved," said Siti.
Siti also said that the part of the Barito watershed in South Kalimantan regionally only covers 40 percent
of the forest area. Meanwhile, the other 60 percent cover areas for other uses (APL) or non-forest areas.
He emphasized that the condition of the Barito Watershed in the South Kalimantan region is not the same
as the Barito Kalimantan Watershed as a whole.
