Press Release

17 February 2021

Image 01. Flood reach over 1 meter high in Semanga village (Pic: Muji)

Floods hit three villages in Sejangkung sub-district, West Kalimantan: Sepantai, Semanga and Perigi Limus during the last 2 weeks with more than 1,000 families affected. Flood from Bengkayang district was suspected to be the main cause. Since 2005, floods occurred every year which affected averagely 60 thousand people. Sejangkung is one of the sub-districts located in the Sambas River Basin (DAS) which supports 4 districts: Sambas, Sanggau, Bengkayang and Landak.

Image 02. Land clearing for oil palm replanting at PT. Agronusa Investama plantation in Sejangkung in 2019 (photo:ECOTON)

Sejangkung is part of 4 Sambas sub-DAS: Sajingan, Simpang Kanan, Simpang Kiri, and Sambas Kecil, which over than 70% of land use is for oil palm plantations (see image 02). Land clearing and the process of replanting oil palms causes erosion and increases the sediment that goes into the rivers and silts canals and rivers. And the process of harvesting and clearing the grass or shrubs that carried out repeatedly, compacting the soil, makes it difficult to be penetrated by rainwater which increase surface runoff.

The combination of rivers stilting and increasing runoff makes the risk of flooding even greater. This is exacerbated by peat area that was drained for oil palm plantation in the sub-districts along the Sambas river, including Sejangkung. Peat consists of 90% water and 10% organic matter (carbon). When the peatland were drained, carbon converts to CO2 and causes land subsidence to sea or river levels. Drained peat releases 70% of water in the form of runoff and loses the ability to regulate landscape hydrology i.e. being the dams at peak floods.

GEMAWAN community coordinator for Sambas, said that the floods occurred in the neighboring village, Semanga (Sejangkung) hits the rice fields and settlements which affected 31 women farmers that he assisted. There are more than 150 hectares rice fields threatened to failed due to the floods and 100 rubbertapper households that have lost their income in Semanga Village.

Hygiene and sanitation become a problem during floods, because residents choose not to evacuate and remain in their homes. Residents must use canoe to go to the floating latrine to defecate / urinate. According to the experience of one of the volunteers he had to urinated in the bathroom which was submerged in the river at night, because it was not safe to go to the floating toilet. In the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, hygiene and sanitation are crucial to prevent the spread and it is very difficult to have during flood. The loss of household income during the floods as a result of the decline in the price of rubber chips also added to the existing economic burden.

Image 03. Ministry of Environment and Forestry indication map for new permits postponement

In the current climate crisis, it is undeniable that the impact of extreme climatic conditions and increased rainfall, such as those currently hitting Indonesia, has made flood intensity increase and the area affected is widening, as experienced in many areas in Kalimantan this year.

Poor spatial planning, lack of monitoring and evaluation of oil palm plantations’ compliance with environmental regulations, weak law enforcement have made plantations and corporations continue repeating the same violations, management of watersheds (DAS) that are fragmented by administrative areas and overlooked the environmental capacity to sustain causes the destruction of the Sambas watershed and deprives the people of the right to a save environment and the right to socially, economically, ecologically, and culturally adequate livelihood (Article 11 of the ECOSOB Covenant).

The actions that the government has taken so far are ‘immediate remedy’ and not as prevention. We see that the risk of annual floods can be reduced by:

1. Calculating the environment carrying capacity, and used as the basis for changes in spatial management policies, evaluation of permits (for example: the rights of exploitation (HGU), disposal of liquid waste) and integrated watershed management.
2. Build integrated river area management on Sambas Watershed based on gender equality and climate emergency based on partnerships between public / community, private sector and government by prioritizing public / community participation and involving 4 buffer districts namely Sambas, Bengkayang, Sanggau and Landak.
3. Increase communities capacity along the rivers and tributaries of the Sambas River Basin to monitor and make complaints about watershed damage by establishing a community network to monitor the Sambas River Basin;
4. Immediately restore the floodplain function to conservation and rehabilitation area of ​​the Sambas watershed area with indigenous plants and community involvement;
5. Monitoring and evaluating the compliance of oil palm plantations with the implementation of water resources management and erosion control, including compliance to not planting oil palm in the riverbank conservation areas,

We call upon local governments to seriously carry out flood prevention efforts with public and to improve spatial conditions along the Sambas watershed to avoid the floods from repeatedly happen every year. In particular, evaluate the opening of oil palm plantations which have increased uncontrollably that have significantly contributed to the loss and capacity of roundwater infiltration which makes the area unable to withstand high rainfall.

Further information:

Riska (ECOTON) – 081252031456

Reza (GEMAWAN) – 081256005531

Muhammad Reza (KRuHA) – 081370601441

To help community affected please visit:

https://kitabisa.com/campaign/gemawanborneo