City flooding under control: Public works
JAKARTA (JP): The head of the maintenance division at the public works agency, Leo Y. Sianturi, said the levels of the city's main rivers, the Pesanggrahan and Ciliwung, are normal.
"Areas which are inundated are still mainly those near these riverbanks," said Leo, who is in charge of the central city post of flood monitoring (Posko banjir).
The monitoring post for the Pesanggrahan River in Bogor showed that the 265 river level recorded on Tuesday evening has decreased to 165, Leo said. The condition of the Pesanggrahan is considered dangerous when the level stands between 250 and 350.
A residential area near the Pesanggrahan River in Pondok Pinang was under 1.5 meters of floodwater on Tuesday.
At the Karet sluice gate in South Jakarta, the river level is still 400, Leo said, far below the dangerous figure of 550 to 600.
The central post sends warning signals to the mayoralties' five units when the level at the city's eight other sluice gates are above normal.
The other sluice gates include those in Depok, Manggarai, Pulogadung, Sunter, the Cakung and Cengkareng drains.
The mayoralties then sound the alarm, including their new sirens or traditional wooden alarms (kentongan) to warn their surroundings.
In North Jakarta the level was still at the normal level of 135 yesterday, but low-lying areas which make up 40 percent of the mayoralty were already inundated.
A traffic jam occurred yesterday during the morning downpour along roads leading to the Dukuh Atas underpass. But Leo played down fears that the area near the Shangri-La Hotel and the Landmark Building would be submerged again.
In February, two nearby pumps could not cope with the amount of water, the level of which eventually reached the top of the traffic lights.
"Both pumps are working now," Leo said.
The agency's two high-volume portable pumps and its 40,000 sandbags have not been used yet, he said. So far the flood units under the five mayoralties are still considered able to handle any inundated areas in their surroundings.
More portable pumps are on order, while the river authorities under the Ministry of Public Works, called the office of Ciliwung-Cisadane rivers improvement project, have 13 portable pumps.
In South Jakarta, Mayor Pardjoko said the dike near the IKPN housing area in Bintaro is being extended by another 900 meters.
Six hundred meters have already been completed while the entire extension is scheduled to be wrapped up by the end of the month, when the rains are expected to become worse. IKPN and Bukit Duri in Tebet are among the most vulnerable areas in South Jakarta. Residents of IKPN mostly have two-story homes and some have their own rubber dinghies. (yns/anr)