City's prepares mamoth flood prevention measures

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

To face possible flooding in coming weeks, the city's crisis coordinating team revealed that this year's project would be more comprehensive than in previous years.

Team officer Z.A.T. Siregar, who is also head of the Crisis Prevention Agency, said on Wednesday that a total of 40,874 personnel from the administration, police, military, search & rescue squad, the local Red Cross branch and a student outdoor activity group would be on-call should floods hit the city.

The figure is an increase from last year's 25,000 personnel involved in the flood emergency preparations.

Refusing to announce the total budget for the project, Siregar only said that the amount would be "several hundred billion rupiah."

The team will also be equipped with 256 rubber dinghies, 169 trucks, four helicopters, 162 military tents, 242 emergency kitchen sets and 94 large drinking water tanks.

It has also allocated several areas and buildings to shelter residents during floods at the 78 flood-prone areas. As many as 158 shelter points are located in North Jakarta, 41 in Central Jakarta, 68 in West Jakarta, 46 in South Jakarta and 14 others in East Jakarta.

During floods in early 2002, at least 30 people were killed and 300,000 were forced to flee their homes. The biggest flood in the city's history hit 168 of 262 subdistricts and paralyzed the capital for days.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) had warned last week of possible flooding in the coming weeks when heavy rain is expected in the highland areas above Jakarta -- Puncak, Bogor and Depok. A full moon on Oct. 10 may contribute to flooding as tide waters in the Java sea will be high than normal in estuaries, thus preventing rainwater from flowing unimpeded out to sea.

Nevertheless, the administration continues to ensure residents that flooding is not imminent.

The crisis center, led by the City's Public Order and Residents Protection Agency, comprises the Fire Department, the Social Agency, the Health Agency, the Public Works Agency and the Crisis Prevention Agency. As of Tuesday, the center was still locked and no office equipment was seen inside.

Head of the Water Control Division with the Public Works Agency, Wirjuita, said that the office had disbursed Rp 9.36 billion (US$1.1 million) to clean 13 rivers, but so far only seven of them were being or had been cleaned; namely the Duri river, the Grogol river, the Ciliwung tributary, Sunter Kresek, the Sekretaris waterway diversion, Tegal Alur and Jelakeng rivers.

The remaining six, in which cleaning projects have not begun include the Cideng river, the Besar river, the Akuran river, the Krukut river, Grogol reservoir and Pulo Mas reservoir.

"In dealing with the upcoming possible floods, we have build embankments in several spots. But what we are afraid of, such as what had happened to the Pluit dike, it could not handle high sea waves which we expect to come during the rainy season," he said.