By Abbas Nazil
Nearly 1,000 people have been confirmed dead and close to one million displaced in Indonesia following catastrophic floods and landslides triggered by a week of torrential rains, as new regional data warns that climate change and ecosystem decline pose escalating risks to billions across Asia.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) reported 961 deaths, 234 people missing and about 5,000 injured across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra provinces.
More than 156,000 homes have been damaged, and at least 975,075 people have been forced into temporary shelters as authorities struggle to reach isolated communities and deliver essential aid.
While floodwaters have begun to recede in some coastal districts, large areas of the central highlands remain inaccessible, and forecasters have warned of more heavy rainfall in the coming days, raising fresh concerns for already vulnerable displaced populations.
Indonesia’s rainy season, which peaks between November and April, frequently brings severe flooding, but environmental groups say worsening impacts reflect years of rapid deforestation, unregulated development and degraded river basins that have intensified natural hazards.
The disaster comes as several Southeast Asian countries – including Sri Lanka and Thailand – suffer their own deadly storms and floods, underscoring the region’s growing vulnerability.
A new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report released Monday, *The Asian Water Development Outlook 2025*, warns that climate change-driven disruption to water systems threatens billions of people and risks reversing over a decade of progress on water security.
The report notes that more than 60 percent of the Asia-Pacific population, or 2.7 billion people, have escaped extreme water insecurity in the past 12 years, but accelerating ecosystem decline and chronic underinvestment could undermine these gains.
ADB Senior Director for Water and Urban Development Norio Saito said urgent action is required to restore ecosystems, strengthen resilience, improve water governance and mobilize innovative financing, warning that “without water security, there is no development.”
Asia already accounts for more than 40 percent of global floods, and between 2013 and 2023 the region recorded 244 major floods, 104 droughts and 101 severe storms, causing widespread devastation and threatening long-term development.
The report highlights severe deterioration of rivers, aquifers, wetlands and forests across 30 of the 50 Asian countries assessed, driven by pollution, unchecked development and land conversion.
It also warns that Asian nations need to invest $4 trillion in water and sanitation by 2040—about $250bn annually—but are currently spending only 40 percent of that, leaving a yearly funding gap of more than $150bn.
