Like the other parts of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Lembata geography is surrounded by five volcanoes and seas that become the hidden gem of the province. The beauty does not only attract the locals, but also national and international attention. Yet, at this time, the beauty has been swept off with the flood on 4 April 2021. The flood was called the greatest disaster in the last 10 years in NTT. At the beginning, it was raining heavily, which was strong enough to push the rocks over the hills to the mountain feet and lowlands sides. Causing the rocks to damage the residents’ houses. At the same time, the sea water level was rising, thus complicating the already severe condition.
6 out of 9 districts in Lembata were affected by the great disaster. Out of 6 districts, East Ile Ape is the most affected by the flood. Because the eruption that has been going on since November last year, is still occurring to this day. Even though the disaster was small in scale, it still left major detrimental effects such as the loss of school building, houses that worsened the already poor education and economic landscape in the area.
One of many flood victims that was impacted was Mama (Mother) Rensa. This mother is one of East Ile Ape residents that saw and felt the horror of this disaster first hand. The flood happened in the evening, right after two heavy rains. At the time, Mama Rensa was at home with her husband and children. So, when the flood was already happening, Mama Rensa still had time to pack their belongings before taking shelter to the house at higher grounds. Yet, when she was about to leave her home, the flood was already high-rise, and Mama Rensa ended up having to find the closest shelter to her home. During her travel to the shelter, many challenges were up ahead. For example, Mama Rensa was hit with the rocks. And when she was in the emergency post too, Mama Rensa faced other challenges.
The emergency posts are divided into the public emergency posts and the private emergency posts. In general, the public posts are more equipped with facilities such as electricity, clean water, enough food, and clothes. Not only that, the public posts are also equipped with stand-in health workers, and psychosocial workers. Yet, this is another different case with the private post such as the one that Mama Rensa was in. The private post is divided into the private post in the towns, local residents’ houses as well as the farms. Currently, Mama Rensa was in the private post in a local residents house that supposedly has better conditions. Yet, the private post in the residents’ farms faced many limitations. The majority of refugees in the private post chose to stay because they desired to stay alongside the late family members that lost their lives in the flood. And to fulfill the needs, the refugees have to rely on the electricity from the nearest village, they have to travel to pick up the assistance. Out of concern for health, the health workers were also visiting the victims in the private post, yet their availability was also limited.
Many detrimental effects emerged from the disaster, from destroyed and damaged houses, damaged school buildings, damaged Integrated Health Centre buildings, damaged public infrastructure and raised many casualties as well. To date, there have been 60 casualties and 20 people remain missing. Regardless of the grim occurrence, the Local Government was still sluggish in dealing with the disaster, from the late response that caused the activists to fill up the government shoes, to the rushed decision to stop the search for the missing people. Because of the difficulty in reaching several locations. Before the disaster, the road infrastructure in Lembata had already been poor and the flood disaster had further worsened the infrastructure landscape.
Almost none left out of East Ile Ape. And knowing this, Mama Rensa is really pessimistic about going back and staying in East Ile Ape again. The sadness was not only felt by the local people of Lembata but the people across Indonesia. Many assistance arrived to help Lembata back on its feet again. Public figures to the President of the Republic of Indonesia, visited the affected areas to provide support for them. Alongside the local activists, health workers, Lembata could rise up again. One that took the crucial role is Mrs. Maria Loka, the activist of Lembata that leads the organization, NGO of Permata that works in assisting the Violence Against Women (VAW) victims in Lembata. Apart from her responsibility in dealing with VAW crisis that often found even amidst the disaster, Mrs. Maria Loka was also responsible as a volunteer in the Lembata Flood Disaster. She alongside her volunteer friends, worked to help the psychosocial assistance for the children and the flood victims which was still very rare in Lembata. Eventually, the assistance was not only helping Lembata and its residents but also solidifying the Lembata itself. We are hoping that the lights such as Mrs. Maria Loka could always exist and become the luminous spots to the local residents.
