City yet to fully prepare for the floods
City yet to fully prepare for the floods
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Dredging Jakarta's rivers ahead of the rainy season and expected
devastating floods is yet to begin in earnest, despite the
deadline for the US$4.3 million project set for Saturday.
"Since I started the water pump project here (in September), I
have never seen any dredging," said Siahaan, a worker of a city
project installing two water pumps to shift water from the Grogol
river to the West Flood Canal nearby.
His statement contradicts earlier comments made by Public
Works Agency head IGKG Suena who said work on dredging the city's
eight rivers began in November.
The administration has allocated Rp 37 billion (US$4.35
million) to dredge the rivers to minimize floods in the capital.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has warned that
rainfall in the capital in January will be almost as high as
those that caused the disastrous floods of 2002.
The BMG forecast that rain will fall for between 26 and 28
days during January with rainfall of between 50 millimeters and
100 mm per day.
It takes only 75 mm of rain a day over three consecutive days
to cause floods in Jakarta.
Last year, Grogol was hit by floodwaters up to 1.5-meters
deep, forcing thousands of residents to take refugee for weeks.
In the Sunter River, piles of garbage swamped and blocked the
sluice gate on Jl. Pegangsaan, Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.
A worker at the gate, Abdullah, said the river was yet to be
dredged.
"The last dredging was after last year's floods. Nobody told
us about a plan to dredge the river," he said.
An excavator was seen in the area to remove garbage.
Abdullah said the river water level was still four-meters
below alert levels.
Residents living near the Cakung sluice gate said the Cakung
River had been dredged twice before Ramadhan, which fell on Oct.
27, and last Saturday.
Dozens of workers were seen elevating the walls of the
riverbanks, establishing a four meter high wall along some 450
meters of the river.