REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TANGERANG -- Some 13 thousand hectares of paddy fields in Tangerang have been destroyed due to the floods, according to the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Office in Tangerang district, Banten province.

"We are still calculating the extent of the damage and what kind of assistance the farmers will need in case their crops failed," Bambang, the chief of the Crop Management Unit at Tangerang district's Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Office, noted here on Friday.

According to Bambang, several flooded paddy fields were ready for harvesting. The floodwaters have inundated the fields for almost four days now.

Bambang said he had proposed that the local farmers should be given free seeds, so that they can replant their paddy fields in the dry season.

Meanwhile, Chief of Tangerang district's Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Teteng Jumara remarked that the floods had inundated 43 villages in 22 sub-districts and had forced 90 thousand people to evacuate to safer places.

Teteng stated that his agency has distributed 90 tons of rice to the evacuees and has deployed 15 boats to assist in the evacuation efforts.

The floods have also inundated 1,159 houses in the villages of Benua Raya and Bati-Bati sub-district in Tanah Laut district, South Kalimantan province, forcing the residents to evacuate to higher ground.

"Several people moved to their relatives' homes," Asnan, the head of Banua Raya village, remarked last Thursday.

In Benua Raya, 681 families comprising 2,550 people were affected by floods.

Even though medical assistance has been provided to the flood victims, they are still awaiting relief aid such as food, he pointed out.

Furthermore, Amrullah, the head of Bati-Bati village, revealed that some 478 houses were flooded in his village.

Some parts of Tanah Laut district experience floods annually, despite several canals being constructed to drain the floodwaters to Kurau River, which empties into the Java Sea.

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