The province of South Kalimantan experiences annual flooding, frequently worse than other Indonesian provinces on the island of Borneo.In late December, Indonesia’s environment minister said the government would review companies operating within watersheds in the province after a large share of the province’s 4.4 million people were impacted by floods at the end of last year.Civil society organizations and scientists say land-use change in the water catchment area has reduced the drainage capacity of soils and increased the likelihood of runoff, which inundates a large share of settlements in the province every year.A spokesperson for the environment ministry told Mongabay in March that a review of companies operating in the river basis was ongoing.
BANJAR, Indonesia – Indonesia’s government continues to review mines and plantations in the river basins of southern Borneo, months after more than 7% of the population there was impacted by flooding in December last year.
“An audit is still in progress,” environment ministry spokesperson Yulia Suryanti told Mongabay Indonesia.
South Kalimantan is one of five Indonesian provinces on the highly biodiverse island of Borneo, which Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia. The southeastern province is particularly vulnerable to flooding during the region’s main rainy season — at least 35 people were killed during major floods that destroyed more than 100,000 homes in 2021.
