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.