Cigarette producing town still underwater

Suherdjoko and Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Semarang, Gresik

Thousands of workers in the cigarette producing town of Kudus were still away from work on Friday due to massive flooding in the area.

Some 90,000 workers are employed at various cigarette companies here, mostly at the largest company, PT Djarum Kudus. Some 60 percent of them were told to stay home, public relations officer Yudo Prihandono said.

Around 18,000 residents have evacuated to higher ground since the embankment of the Wulan River spilled over and flooded homes. As of Friday, construction workers and residents were still trying to repair the embankment.

The local bus terminal was flooded as well.

Business people operating in the flooded areas of Central and East Java reported a drop in sales and production of up to 50 percent because of disrupted distribution after parts of the 600-kilometer-long Bengawan Solo River flooded over two weeks ago.

"We're still producing but we can't send anything while roads are underwater," said Haryanto Halim, who owns the instant beverage Marimas. "Besides, people are just buying basic needs."

Production costs were also going up, he said Friday in Semarang, where floods are expected each rainy season.

The Central Java capital houses the industrial areas of Kaligawe and Bugangan, employing some 5,000 workers.

"On the surface the Kaligawe area is not flooded because management has been raising their buildings," said Didik Sukmono, head of the province association of industrial sites.

"But the surrounding roads are still inundated," he said. "The Semarang administration seems to be handling floods only partially."

He said production was down by 50 percent since the floods began last month.

Authorities in several inundated areas on Friday were still repairing railways while residents still lacked electricity.

In Bojonegoro, the East Java town hardest hit by the overflowing of the Bengawan Solo, the Jakarta-Surabaya train route has yet to resume operation because of repair work on a total of 300 meters of railway in four separate locations.

Antara news agency quoted chief technician Aminullah as saying the management of the state-run railway company had ordered repair work to be completed by Saturday.

Also in Bojonegoro, the local manager of the state-run electricity company Isbiyanto said almost 30,000 homes in the town and in neighboring Tuban and Lamongan still had their supply cut off.

"We deliberately turned off supply," he said, adding that 112 relay stations were still underwater.

Floods in the furthest areas passed by the Bengawan Solo, Lamongan and Gresik, subsided Friday but authorities said they still faced difficulty in distributing aid to displaced residents.

The chief information officer of Gresik, Mizwar Syukur, said officials were still urging residents to be on the alert although water levels in the shrimp and fish ponds had decreased by up to 15 centimeters.

"We're also expecting many more displaced residents because people are still resisting evacuation and watching over their assets at home," he said.