Relief teams and volunteers are struggling to assist millions affected by devastating floods and landslides across Asia, as the death toll in the worst-hit countries, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, has climbed to more than 1,750.
Hundreds more remain missing as renewed heavy rains threaten further destruction.
In Indonesia, at least 908 people have been confirmed dead in Aceh province on Sumatra, while 410 are still missing, according to data released Saturday. More than 800,000 residents have been displaced. Indonesia’s meteorological agency warned that Aceh could face “very heavy rain” through the weekend, with North and West Sumatra also at risk.
Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf said rescue teams were still searching for bodies buried under “waist-deep mud.” “Many people need basic necessities. Remote areas remain unreachable,” he said, warning that shortages of food now pose a greater threat than the floods themselves.
“People are not dying from the flood, but from starvation.”
Entire villages in the Aceh Tamiang region have been washed away, he said, describing the area as “completely destroyed from top to bottom.”
In Sri Lanka, at least 607 people have died, with 214 still missing. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called it the nation’s “most challenging natural disaster.” More than two million people—nearly 10 percent of the population—have been affected, while 71,000 homes have been damaged, including 5,000 destroyed outright. Officials warned that continuing heavy rains could trigger more landslides and derail ongoing cleanup efforts.
In Thailand, the floods have caused 276 deaths, while two fatalities each were reported in Malaysia and Vietnam, where heavy rainfall triggered more than a dozen landslides.
Experts say the disaster was intensified by climate change, with two typhoons and a cyclone hitting the region simultaneously last week. Illegal logging and rapid deforestation, particularly linked to palm-oil plantations in Sumatra, also exacerbated the floods, with images showing logs washed downstream by floodwaters.
Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry announced the revocation of logging licences for 20 companies covering 750,000 hectares, including concessions in flood-affected areas. The Environment Ministry also ordered the immediate suspension of palm-oil, mining, and power-plant operations upstream of disaster-hit zones in northern Sumatra.
Rainforest cover acts as a natural barrier during heavy rain, said Febi Dwirahmadi of Griffith University’s Centre for Environment and Population Health.
“Following deforestation, there is nothing to slow down the heavy rainfall as it enters waterways,” he said, adding that the combination of forest loss and climate change is increasing the severity of such disasters.
Source: Aljazeera