Ministry lays out plan for 30 universities hit by floods

Severe flooding in Indonesia’s Sumatran region has damaged at least 30 universities and affected thousands of members of the academic community, according to the latest data released by Indonesia’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology.

Many of these universities in Aceh, North and West Sumatra suffered severe damage, with electricity, telecommunication lines, and water services cut off. Measures are now under way to restore services to affected universities so that they can resume operation, the ministry said this week.

The latest National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) report on 2 December said about 3.2 million people in 49 regencies and cities in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra were heavily affected by landslides and floods. In Aceh, 1.5 million fled their homes. In North and West Sumatra 538,000 and 106,200 people, respectively, were displaced.

BNPB reported the death toll as of 2 December at 811, with 623 missing and 2,600 injured.

A number of flood-hit areas, like Takengon in Aceh and the hardest-hit city of Sibolga in North Sumatra, were isolated as bridges collapsed and roads were washed away. Rescue efforts were hindered by heavily damaged roads and aggravated by a lack of heavy equipment. Aid has been slow to reach Sibolga and the Central Tapanuli district in North Sumatra.

The ministry of higher education’s Secretary General Togar M Simatupang said in Jakarta on Tuesday 2 December: “The number of academic community members directly affected is estimated at 6,437. We have no reports of fatalities or missing persons, but the data may change as on-site verification continues.”

Universities as coordination hubs

He said his office was providing resources to help affected universities and other institutions. The resources will cover students, lecturers and local authorities.

Those universities that can are also being called upon to help others. “The ministry is mobilising the resources of local universities and other institutions across Indonesia to support affected communities,” he said. It planned to designate 13 universities in disaster-hit areas as coordination hubs for academic programmes, while other campuses will be tapped for technological capabilities and expert personnel, he said.

A number of state-funded and private universities in other cities have been raising funds for the flood-affected universities in North Sumatra. They also sent volunteers to the flood-hit areas to help with rescue operations.

Simatupang said the ministry will encourage university leaders to grant academic leniency for students and lecturers, ensuring learning activities can continue without compromising safety or exceeding the constraints imposed by the disaster.

In addition, he highlighted plans to deploy the ministry’s Centre for Higher Education Financing and Assessment to provide post-disaster living-expense assistance for students directly affected by the crisis.

Why Sumatra was badly hit

The catastrophic flooding followed a combination of rare weather events, including the northeast monsoon, a rare cyclone forming unusually close to the equator where cyclones do not usually develop, and torrential rain. However, other factors contributed to its devastating impact.

Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the Indonesia Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) and professor of environmental geology and disaster mitigation at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), identified multiple causes for the deadly floods, including geological aspects, land use, and environmental degradation.

“Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Sumatra Island as a whole sit on the intersection of the Indian-Australian tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate, which is a highly active seismic region. By nature, the hills, mountains and highlands in this area are shaky and so vulnerable to landslides even without heavy rains,” she told University World News on 3 December.

“The landslide rubble then clogs the rivers and lakes. When rains are heavy, the water overflows and causes floods,” she said, adding this is exacerbated by environmental degradation – deforestation and careless land use.

“More forests were cut, there was higher emission of carbon dioxide, which in turn raises the temperature and causes climate change,” said Karnawati, who was previously the first female president of UGM.

Deforestation in Sumatra

Dr Hijrah Saputra, a lecturer in disaster management at the Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) School of Postgraduate Studies, said in a university website post: “The main trigger is exceptionally heavy rainfall caused by Tropical Cyclone Senyar and a developing cyclone in the Malacca Strait, both of which also fuelled major flooding across several Malaysian states.

“Conditions in Sumatra worsened due to environmental factors such as deforested slopes, settlements near riverbanks, inadequate drainage, and critical infrastructure that has not yet adapted to these risks,” he said.

Beyond the immediate flooding and landslides, Saputra also pointed to widespread logging in upstream watershed areas as a key aggravating factor. “Videos and photos circulating online show large amounts of timber washed into rivers and along the coast. This is not a natural occurrence; it signals uncontrolled logging activity. Deforestation reduces water absorption, increases surface runoff, and heightens landslide vulnerability,” he said.

While Saputra acknowledged the government’s swift emergency response, including helicopter and naval evacuations, he noted: “Long-term mitigation remains weak. Early-warning systems have not reached remote villages.”

Dr Hatma Suryatmojo, a hydrological and watershed conservation researcher at UGM, said in an online article that the flash floods were not an isolated event.

“The flash floods of November 2025 in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra may be among the largest of the past several decades. These events demonstrate a worsening trend in hydrometeorological disasters as deforestation and climate change intensify,” he noted.

According to Suryatmojo, forest ecosystem degradation in the upper watershed reduced the area’s ecological capacity to absorb and regulate high rainfall.

West Sumatra had approximately 54% forest cover (around 2.3 million hectares) in 2020. Although larger than North Sumatra’s forest cover, the province has one of the highest deforestation rates in the country.

WALHI West Sumatra, the regional branch of a major Indonesian environmental and sustainability non-governmental organisation, reported that between 2001 and 2024, the province lost about 320,000 hectares of primary forest and 740,000 hectares of total tree cover (primary and secondary forests combined).

In 2024 alone, deforestation reached 32,000 hectares, Suryatmojo noted. Much of West Sumatra’s remaining forest lies on steep slopes along the Bukit Barisan range, meaning that forest loss sharply increases the risk of landslides and flash floods.

“The flash flood tragedy that struck Sumatra in November 2025 was essentially the accumulation of long-standing ‘ecological sins’ in the upper watershed. Extreme weather was only the trigger; the severity of the disaster reflected extensive environmental degradation from the headwaters to the downstream areas,” he said.

Climate change

Fachruddin Mangunjaya, dean of the Faculty of Biology and Agriculture at Universitas Nasional, pointed to climate change as an undeniable fact.

“You can imagine, the rainfall reached 300 to 500 mm in one day. It means a month’s rainfall poured onto the ground in just one day,” he told University World News.

It was no coincidence that, due to its location, Sumatra has a distinct climate affected by the South Asia monsoon that is part of the largest weather system on earth, he said. In late November, heavy monsoon rains and tropical cyclones devastated not just Sumatra Island but also Sri Lanka and southern Thailand.

Mangunjaya told University World News the disaster in Sumatra was a wake-up call for the Indonesian government and other concerned parties to adapt their disaster response to climate change. “We should move from climate change mitigation to climate change adaptation,” he said.

“Mitigation measures are definitely still needed. We continue to reduce carbon emissions, grow trees, or shift to renewable energy, but they should be followed by policies adapted to climate change. Spatial planning, infrastructure and buildings should adjust themselves to climate change,” he added. “Don’t build office compounds or housing complexes close to upstream, riverbanks or disaster-prone areas.”

Environmental Study Centres

Local news agency Antara said Indonesia’s Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq “acknowledged significant changes in the landscape following floods and landslides in Sumatra, including areas near hydroelectric power plants and gold mines”.

The 1 December report said his ministry “will collaborate with universities in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra to study the environmental carrying capacity and assess the operations of companies in flood-affected areas”, adding that environmental approvals would be “reanalysed” based on recalibrations following the latest catastrophic events.

While analysts see unwise spatial planning and land management as being key causes of flooding disasters, the environment ministry announced earlier this year it was stepping up the role of university environment centres in helping to draft and support environment policies.

Almost all universities in Indonesia, state and private, have their own environmental study centres, but their effectiveness has not been studied and may leave a lot to be desired, according to observers.

“If it is about unwise local administration policies, the research centres should have made recommendations to experts at the local administration level. If it is about violations of the rules by plantation companies, the centres should have reminded them,” said a student at Bogor Agricultural University who requested anonymity.

According to Mangunjaya, the environmental study centres face limitations. “They don’t have funds. Their universities generally do not provide a proper budget allocation for them. So, the centres should be able to seek funds from outside,” he said.

“If they are creative enough – for example, by doing joint research with other research organisations or obtaining foreign funds – they would be able to do good research and provide good recommendations. If not, then the environmental study centres are nothing more than an academic trend,” he added.