March 29, 2026 | 08:14 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The task force for the Acceleration of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (PRR) post-disaster in Sumatra, Indonesia, has expedited the cleaning of mud and the rehabilitation of damaged rice fields due to floods and landslides in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra.
Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Information Center, Benni Irwan, stated that the mud cleaning is aimed at restoring the public facilities affected by the floods and landslides to normal function.
"Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of rice fields is carried out to maintain the rice supply and expedite the recovery of farmers' lives," Benni said in his official statement on Saturday, March 28, 2026.
Based on the data from the PRR task force as of March 28, 2026, out of a total of 42,702 hectares of rice fields targeted for rehabilitation in the three affected provinces, 991 hectares have been successfully rehabilitated. Meanwhile, 5,333 hectares are still in the process of being handled.
A total of 42 hectares of rice fields have been successfully rehabilitated out of 31,464 hectares targeted for rehabilitation in Aceh. Furthermore, 170 hectares of rice fields in North Sumatra have been rehabilitated out of the targeted 7,336 hectares of rice fields. As for West Sumatra, 779 hectares have been rehabilitated out of the targeted 3,902 hectares.
As for the progress of mud cleaning in the three provinces, 396 out of a total of 476 locations in Aceh have been cleared of mud. "Meanwhile, the other 80 locations are still in the process of being worked on," said Benni.
Meanwhile, in North Sumatra, out of the total 24 locations targeted for cleaning, 20 locations have been successfully cleared, and the rest are still in the process of being worked on. In West Sumatra, the mud cleaning process has been completed, with 29 affected locations thoroughly cleared.
Previously, the Head of the PRR Task Force, Muhammad Tito Karnavian, revealed that mud cleaning is the government's main focus in expediting the recovery at several affected points.
"Mud is the main problem in low-lying areas. Our team has recorded all the points where the mud has accumulated," Tito said in a press conference at the Presidential Staff Office, Jakarta, on Wednesday, March 25, 2026.
This Ministry of Internal Affairs noted 445 mud points in the three provinces. 84 percent of these points have completed the cleaning.
Furthermore, Tito also stressed that they are trying to normalize the rivers in the three affected provinces, which are filled with sedimented mud. He stated that river normalization is crucial to prevent subsequent floods and support irrigation for the rice fields and villagers' ponds.
Read: Indonesia Allocates Rp336 Billion for Rice Field Rehabilitation in Sumatra
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