Aid moves to thousands displaced by Indonesia floods
Source: Reuters
JAKARTA, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Government and aid agencies were moving food, water and medical aid on Thursday to hundreds of thousands forced into temporary shelters by floods and landslides on Indonesia's Sumatra island. Officials used helicopters to reach remote points in Aceh province on the tip of the island, while military airplanes and dozens of lorries shuttled relief supplies to other areas. Health authorities began treating well water to stem the outbreak of disease. The confirmed death toll in Aceh and neighbouring North Sumatra province has remained around 100 in recent days, but figures for the displaced, many of whom lack basic necessities, have climbed to total some 400,000. "Displaced people in Aceh are at 365,335, while in North Sumatra (they are) at 44,189," said Laksmita Novira, a U.N. aid spokeswoman in Aceh. Medication and doctors had been sent to help the displaced, according to Ministry of Health crisis centre chief Rustam Pakaya. "So far there is no serious health problem," he said. Lina Sofiani, a UNICEF officer in Jakarta, told Reuters: "Today, a child protection team from UNICEF's Banda Aceh base will go to east Aceh. Three diarrhoea cases were reported". The government is sending additional food to flood-affected areas, polluted wells were being treated with chlorine, and temporary camps had been fogged with insecticide, the health ministry's Pakaya told Reuters. The flooding came two years after a giant tsunami left about 170,000 dead or missing in Aceh, a remote but resource-rich province whose capital, Banda Aceh, is 1,700 km (1,060 miles) northwest of Jakarta. Authorities have blamed heavy rains and the effects of deforestation for the latest destruction. Lack of adequate forest cover leaves the ground less able to absorb excess water. Flooding has also hit parts of peninsular Malaysia, across the Strait of Malacca from Sumatra.
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