Wasior Disaster

There should be no doubt about the cause of this disaster.  It is not a 'natural disaster', it can't be attributed to 'climate change'... it could have been avoided.

Unfortunately Indonesia doesn't think ahead.  The governments don't heed glaringly obvious warnings, and the dollar signs in their eyes make the environment fall by the way-side, even when it means the welfare of the people they are charged to serve and protect is put at risk.  They just cut the trees, rape the forests, build completely ridiculous road systems and destabilize watersheds so that a simple heavy rain ends in hundreds of lives lost, thousands displaced, and a city in ruin.

I was supposed to be arriving in Wasior this month as part of the Kalabia education trip to Cenderawasih Bay.  I was just discussing the situation in the Bay with some colleagues who had recently returned from a survey trip there (they were doing genetic studies on marine species, surveying for new previously-undiscovered species, and identifying potential areas for marine tourism development, but they couldn't help but see the destruction of the marine environment that was going on as a result of activities on the land surrounding their study sites)!  I was enquiring about conservation issues that we should focus our education program for the area on.  They had just finished telling me that the story there, even though Cenderawasih Bay is a National Park, is no different from the situation all over the rest of Papua, and indeed, most of the lesser-inhabited areas of Indonesia... uncontrolled, poorly-planned development, combined with rampant illegal exploitation of natural resources (illegal logging, mining and land-conversion)... then the breaking news story of a disastrous flood and mudslides burying the main town in the Bay hit the news.

We postponed our trip, as it is an inappropriate time to visit while the town and regency is dealing with a disaster of this size... Current counts (as of yesterday, 2010/10/10) have 144 dead, but another 161 missing and feared dead, over 1000 injured, and the entire town's population of over 5000 displaced (most evacuated to nearby cities due to lack of access to clean water and fear of additional flooding if rains continue).  It's a small town, but it is the capital of the main regency in Cenderawasih Bay, Wondama.

As conservationists, and educators, we definitely want to capitalize on the moment to turn it into a learning experience... be sure that the message gets through:  destruction of the natural environment holds nothing but disaster.  But we don't want to be insensitive, so we are postponing until the trauma experienced by the people there settles, they can get their homes, and their lives, back.

Of course, the 'aid' effort is committing all kinds of serious errors as well - like 'handing over 2 billion Rp in cash' to aid the recovery of the disaster... yeah, how much of that money do you think will actually get to the people who need it!?!

Anyway, there is a positive light in this story... there are a few local aid organizations from other areas in Papua who are being driven by their hearts and not their wallets to help with the recovery.  A small group of doctors and nurses called MerC have arrived to tend to the wounded, and several others are making collections of clothing, etc, for evacuated survivors.

The problem of course, is that the people responsible for this disaster aren't affected at all.  They are so far away from the sites that they are affecting...  cozy in their posh Jakarta homes, sitting on their padded pockets, watching it all on the latest flatscreen high-def television.

The climate of corruption is so thick in Indonesia it permeates every level.  There exists in Indonesia the equivalent of what we call an Environmental Impact Study (it's called an AMDAL), but it can be bought... and bought for peanuts when comparing the potential income from a large gold mine, or a large harvest of hardwood.