A man with a Save the Children vest walks along a street in Demak, Indonesia.

INDONESIA: At least 11,500 people displaced by floods in Central Java

23 Feb 2024 Indonesia

Flooding in Demak and Grobogan regencies of Central Java has displaced about 11,500 people, including at least 1,100 children.

Photo: A man with a Save the Children vest walks along a residential street inundated with floods in Demak, Indonesia in February 2024. Abid Amirullah / Save the Children.

SEMARANG, Indonesia 23 February 2023 - Flooding in Demak and Grobogan regencies of Central Java, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, has displaced about 11,500 people, including at least 1,100 children, and forced some schools to close as the Southeast Asian country grapples with the increasing impacts of the global climate crisis.

We stand side by side with children in the world's toughest places.

At least 71,000 people have been affected by the floods in Central Java, which began earlier this month when heavy rain and a burst embankment flooded Demak town in Indonesia’s Central Java province. The floods have forced many public facilities to shut and damaged infrastructure including homes, schools, bridges, and government buildings.

Some 11,500[1] people have been displaced from their homes, while at least six schools have closed and a further eight have been converted into evacuation shelters.

Floods are common during the rainy season, which typically occurs between November and March, in Central Java. However, the country’s national disaster agency has said that more than 90 % of the country’s natural disasters over the past decade have been exacerbated by climate change.[2]

Anto*, 14, from Karangayartown in Central Java, said he was not able to go to school:

“I’m sad. Because of the flood I can’t go to school, I can’t study and I can’t play.”

Jayana, a resident of Karanganyar town in Central Java who has a disability, said:

“It flooded for half an hour and came up to my neck. When the flood began, we could not save anything, we evacuated and went to higher ground.”

Save the Children, along with local partner Migrant Care, has provided shelter and food to those affected and will provide educational packages to children and help people to return to their home once flood waters subside.

Fadli Usman, Humanitarian Director at Save the Children in Indonesia, said:

"Save the Children, in collaboration with Migrant Care, has provided five hundred hygiene kits to hundreds of families in three villages including supplies of water. We will also distribute educational packages to children and accompany residents when they return to their homes. We will work together to clean residents' houses while distributing clean water and we  will build forward better by promoting the resilience of children and families.”

Indonesia is ranked in the top-third of countries in terms of climate risk, with high exposure to all types of flooding, and extreme heat.

The intensity of these hazards is expected to grow as the climate changes. The country is particularly vulnerable to rising sea-levels and ranked fifth highest in the world in population inhabiting lower-elevation coastal zones. [3]

Migrant CARE (Indonesian Association for Migrant Workers Sovereignty) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Indonesia focused on the rights of migrant workers. Save the Children Indonesia worked with Migrant CARE during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization is well equipped to provide support to marginalized communities.  

Save the Children has worked in Indonesia for more than four decades. We’ve responded to nearly all the natural disasters that have occurred, including 2018’s deadly earthquake and tsunami where we were one of the first agencies to gain access to Sulawesi.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

*Name changed to protect anonymity.

References

  1. Central Java Province Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Feb. 2024.

  2. Flooding in Jakarta: A Call to Increase Climate Change Awareness https://news.climate.columbia.edu

  3. https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/15504-Indonesia%20Country%20Profile-WEB_0.pdf

 

For further enquiries please contact:

Amy Lefevre, Global Media Manager, Asia: Amy.Lefevre@savethechildren.org

Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

Please also check our Twitter account @Save_GlobalNews for more news.

Related News

Maysa*, 28, holding her son Khalid*, 3, in the camp where the family is displaced in Syria

Maysa*, 28, and her husband, Bahaa*, 24, have two young children; Khalid*, three, and Khansa*, one and a half. The family is now living in a displacement camp in Syria after fleeing the violence in Lebanon. In 2019, Bahaa fled Syria to Lebanon, to escape escalating violence in his village, in search of safety and work. In Lebanon, he married Maysa*, a Syrian refugee. The family worked in agriculture, living in tents set up in the fields they worked in. Life wasn’t so easy for them, often landowners withheld their wages which were barely enough to cover basic needs. Some non-governmental organisations provided aid, which helped them get by, but life remained tough. When the violence escalated in Lebanon, the family fled to Syria to save the lives of their children. Save the Children is assisting the family by providing Ready-to-Eat kits, hygiene kits, dignity kits for women, and Plumpy Nut butter for children under 5 years. They are one of the 117 families who arrived on October 29, 2024, in one of the displacement camps in Syria and are living through difficult conditions. They have limited access to water, food, and warm clothes for their children. Despite receiving some basic supplies, such as blankets, a tent, and food baskets, the extreme cold affected their son’s health, and he fell sick. Roni Ahmed / Save the Children

13 Nov 2024

Lebanon

ABOUT 300,000 CHILDREN HAVE FLED LEBANON TO SYRIA, WHERE AID NEEDS HAVE NEVER BEEN HIGHER

About 300,000 children have fled from Lebanon to Syria in the past seven weeks to seek safety from the worsening conflict, only to arrive in a country where humanitarian needs have never been higher. We have multimedia content to accompany this press release: www.contenthubsavethechildren.org/Package/2O4C2S11VJ1U
READ MORE
Mpox Case Isolation Center Uvira, DRC

Prudence*, 26, a mother of three from South Kivu province, fled armed conflict with her family to Uvira, DRC, in 2023. The hot climate led to widespread illness, with her family suffering from malaria and her children contracting cholera, which is endemic in the area. In May 2024, Mpox spread in her health zone, primarily affecting children. By September, her youngest daughter Christelle*, just 5 months old, fell ill with Mpox. Unsure of the illness, Prudence* initially treated her with medicine from a local pharmacy, which was ineffective. While seeking help from a traditional practitioner, Prudence* encountered community relays trained by Save the Children, who advised her to seek proper treatment at the Mpox isolation centre. Christelle’s* health began improving during her two-week stay at the centre, much to her mother’s relief. Prudence* is thankful for the support she received and dreams of a better future for her children, hoping for peace to return to her village so she can resume farming. Elias Mcito / Save the Children

13 Nov 2024

Burundi , Democratic Congo

Cases of new mpox strain more than double among children in DR Congo and Burundi since emergency declared

The new and aggressive strain of the potentially deadly mpox virus  is spreading rapidly among children in the DRC and Burundi, with cases more than doubling since a public health emergency was declared in mid-August.
READ MORE
default-image

12 Nov 2024

Global

COP29: CHILDREN CALL ON WORLD LEADERS TO ACT AS CLIMATE DISASTERS THREATEN THEIR HOMES, EDUCATION, AND LIVES

Children are calling on world leaders meeting at the COP29 Summit in Azerbaijan to include children’s needs in their response to the climate crisis. Photos and link to the full press conference available here. 
READ MORE