30 city schools prone to flooding: Councilor

JAKARTA (JP): At least 30 schools in the city are prone to flooding, a city councilor said yesterday.

City councilor Soeparmo, head of Commission E for welfare affairs, told The Jakarta Post that over the last few years most of these schools had been regularly flooded during the monsoon.

"The schools are mostly located in North Jakarta. The land there is sinking, possibly due to the effects of the sea water intrusion in the area," he said.

The 30 schools include SD (elementary school) Kapuk, SD Kali Baru, SD Kapuk Muara and SD Pademangan in North Jakarta; SD Duren Sawit in East Jakarta; SD Pesanggrahan and SD Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta; and SD Sumur Batu in Central Jakarta; SMP 184 (junior high school) in Pasar Rebo and SMUN 64 (senior high school) in Cipayung, both in East Jakarta.

Reports say at least 230 of the 2,593 public elementary schools in Jakarta are in poor condition due to a lack of maintenance, and need renovating.

The real figure could be higher as many public school principals have not reported the condition of their school buildings to the responsible bodies.

Most of these schools had to be abandoned because the city did not have sufficient funds to renovate them.

"Especially now, when there are going to be budget cuts here and there due to the monetary turmoil," Soeparmo said.

Until now there are no evacuation sites ready for students in case their schools are flooded.

"Usually students are given days off until the school is dry again," Soeparmo, who is also head of the city's education and teaching agency, said.

"Usually, once a school is flooded it is hard to pump the water out. So it can take days or even weeks to dry."

Two schools in North Jakarta, SMP 122 in Warakas and SD Koja, were flooded for more than a week recently.

When interviewed by TV journalists, students from these schools said they liked floods because they meant skipping classes.

"I like floods. We can play in the water... and I can catch as much baby frogs as I want," Imam, a Koja elementary school student, said.

R. Sitindjak, head of the flood post at the city public order office, said the two schools had been routinely hit by floods over the past two years.

"We have warned those schools to take precautions to deal with the flood problem. So far it is hard to deal with because we don't have enough equipment, such as water pumps, to drain the water away from flooded areas," he said. (edt)