City introduces community wells to fight fires
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Central Jakarta Municipality is introducing the use of wells in overcrowded, slum areas as part of efforts to help firefighters contain blazes, which are all too common during the dry season from April to October.
Central Jakarta Mayor Muhayat said that having wells in every slum neighborhood was crucial because the fire department often had difficulties getting water on the fires due to an acute absence of sources like rivers and hydrants.
"We think that wells will be much more effective than portable fire extinguishers," Muhayat said over the weekend.
Experts have often said that fire extinguishers could only douse small flames in the first five minutes after a fire has broken out.
After the critical five-minute period, people would need fire engines to extinguish large blazes.
Firefighters have repeatedly complained of a glaring lack of water in overcrowded areas across the capital. Shallow and polluted rivers with floating garbage make it difficult to get water from rivers.
City Fire Department head Johnny Pangaribuan said that his crew members could not rely on the few hydrants across the city because there were just not enough of them. Ideally, a city this size would have 20,000 hydrants, but it only has 1,100.
"We could not place hydrants all over the city because of slow-paced development in tap water networks here," he sighed.
Muhayat added that the construction of wells along with supporting equipment, like pumps and hoses would cost approximately Rp 5 million for each location, and would be much cheaper than the costly extinguishers.
A 70-kilogram mobile industrial extinguisher costs Rp 30 million, while the 140-kilogram goes for Rp 40 million, according to the fire chief.
He said the pilot project for the wells was being conducted at a crowded area in Cikini.
Some crowded, poor areas in Central Jakarta municipality that are prone to fires include such places like Kebun Melati, Kebon Kacang, Johar, Tanah Tinggi, Senen and Tanah Abang.
"We hope to go on with the building of these wells in another 130 neighborhoods in Central Jakarta, including slum areas," he said.
He acknowledged that the administration did not have any money to implement the project and therefore he had called on the respective subdistricts to allocate some portion of the Subdistrict Community Empowerment Fund (PPMK) for the wells.
PPMK is a program, which has been ongoing since 2001 in a bid to empower local communities. This year, all 267 subdistricts in the capital received Rp 1 billion from the administration.
According to Muhayat, every community unit ideally should have at least three wells, which are situated on the side of common areas where they are easily accessed.
He added that the residents could also benefit from the wells, for instance, to water their gardens.
Fire department records show that fires are more likely to occur in slums and densely populated areas, mostly due to residents' negligence. Exploding kerosene stoves and power short circuits are the major causes of around 700 fires a year in the city.
The most recent major fire took place at the Blok M market in South Jakarta and firefighters spent 53 hours to extinguish it because of a lack of water. That fire claimed the life of one senior fireman.