City gears up for floods wth drills, campaigns

City gears up for floods wth drills, campaigns

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Sporadic rains that will start this month have prompted the city
administration to start coordinating among the relevant agencies
in anticipation of devastating floods, as happened in 2002, that
might occur during the rainy season.

"We have decided to hold drills for disaster mitigation in the
second week of October. It is a part of our efforts to increase
awareness so that the public anticipates floods," said Soebagio,
the city public order agency head who is also secretary of the
city's coordinating agency for disaster mitigation, on Friday at
City Hall.

Relevant agencies -- the City Fire Department, City Health
Agency, City Public Order Agency, Search and Rescue squad and
City Social Agency and the Indonesian Red Cross Jakarta chapter
-- have been meeting since July to discuss necessary measures to
be taken when floods hit the city.

The planned exercises, Soebagio said, would see the agencies
officials tour across the city to warn the residents of possible
calamities.

"To boost people's awareness of the threat of fire, for
instance, we will let our fire trucks and ambulances parading
city streets," he said.

The coordinating agency will also hold a disaster mitigation
exhibition at the National Monument (Monas) Park in Central
Jakarta, which will be open to the public.

Soebagio acknowledged that the agency's failure to alert the
public about imminent floods and information on what to do during
calamities had led to greater fatalities and injuries.

The worst floods in Jakarta's modern history occurred in 2002,
affecting most of the 36 districts in the city. Thirty people
died in the floods that also paralyzed transportation for days
and forced more than 300,000 people to leave their homes.

With its 13 rivers and 40 percent of its area below sea level,
Jakarta is prone to annual flooding. The delay in the
construction of East Flood Canal, which is expected to ease
floods in the eastern part of the capital to link with the
existing West Flood Canal, has hampered flood control efforts.

Despite the administration's resolve to prepare for floods, a
Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) official said that
Jakarta would experience only sporadic rains this month with
precipitation ranging from low to moderate levels.

BMG spokesman Soetanto told The Jakarta Post that the southern
part of Jakarta would have more rain that the northern part.

"In October, we hope that the rains will affect a wider area
across the city with greater intensity and frequency," he said.

However, he said this did not mean that the rainy season has
started.

"We forecast that the rainy season will begin in December or
January," he added.

The rain will help lower the temperature in the city and end
water shortages which have affected nine areas including
Kalideres in West Jakarta, Pulogadung in North Jakarta, Tebet in
South Jakarta and Duren Sawit in East Jakarta.