Landslide Buries Houses: Ambon, Maluku Islands

This rainy season across the archipelago has been one of the worst for quite a while. The incessant heavy rain has caused floods and reeked havoc on almost every island. In areas where there has been land clearance, illegal logging and deforestation, landslides have occurred.

And, a landslide sparked by heavy rainfall has buried five houses in Ambon. Apparently no casualties were reported but dozens of residents were forced to evacuate and most went to stay with relatives in the region.

Three of the buried houses were in Batumerah area while the other two were in Batugajah, both of which are in Sirimau district. It seems the residents of these areas knew their houses were threatened by landslides because they are located next to a hilly area. The people's houses were largely destroyed by rubble carried along by the landslide which included uprooted trees, mud and stones.

Green Economics and other environmental groups within Indonesia have been fighting an uphill battle for years to educate rural Indonesians on the necessity to preserve rainforests and to minimise the clearance of these areas for crop growing.