Cooperation in flood prevention vital: Governor
Cooperation in flood prevention vital: Governor
JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja says it is impossible
to rely on the city administration to overcome the flood problem.
"The municipality does not have adequate funds to make Jakarta
free from flooding," the governor told reporters yesterday.
"Therefore, the people's cooperation in flood prevention is
necessary," he added.
People should not live along riverbanks and should not dump
garbage into the rivers or waterways, he said.
"Many people are against the demolition of shantytowns along
riverbanks. They are not aware that the shantytowns have been
deteriorating the condition of 13 rivers in the city," he said.
The bad condition of those rivers is one of the factors
causing the floods, he said.
Surjadi said he is cooperating with the West Java province in
normalizing the rivers.
"The people should support the programs because the programs
are very expensive," he said.
Surjadi said that the city flood control systems worked. He
said the flood control programs are not meant to eliminate
floods, but to reduce the severity of the floods.
"It's not easy to eliminate flooding, but every time I visit
flood victims, they say the floods are not as bad as those that
happened in the previous years," Surjadi said.
Surjadi said that the city's flood programs, such as the clean
river program, are the best compared with other Indonesian
provinces.
Dikes
Meanwhile, head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Rivers Normalization
Project, Siswoko, said yesterday that the IKPN housing complex in
Bintaro, South Jakarta, needed an embankment to protect the
residential area from annual floods.
He made the statements in connection to Monday's floods, which
disrupted traffic in parts of the city. Water reached heights of
1.8 meters at the IKPN housing complex on Monday morning and a
height of 2.3 meters in the evening.
Siswoko said a 10-meter-long dike must be built along the
Pesanggrahan river, which runs through the Bintaro, Ciputat and
Cileduk areas, to prevent the river water from spilling into the
residential areas.
Heavy rains on Sunday and Monday, as well as water from West
Java areas have been inundating several areas, including Cileduk,
the IKPN housing complex, Bintaro and Ulujami in South Jakarta.
The flood caused traffic jams and forced many students to walk
from Blok M bus terminal because buses and taxis refused to take
them.
A man living in Bintaro said his daughter had to walk from
Blok M bus terminal to her home because no taxi would take her.
"My daughter arrived home almost at midnight, although her office
closed before 6 p.m.," the father said. Buses plying Blok M -
Bintaro routes also refused to operate.
The city now has 80 spots prone to flooding, 20 of which are
in the "western stream section" of the capital, including the
IKPN complex in South Jakarta, Palmerah in West Jakarta and Teluk
Gong in North Jakarta.
Twenty-five locations are in the "central stream section" of
the city, including the Pertamina housing complex in South
Jakarta, Jati Petamburan in Central Jakarta, Taman Sari in West
Jakarta and Jembatan II in North Jakarta.
The remaining 35 areas, including Cipinang Rambutan in East
Jakarta, Jl. Bungur, Central Jakarta and Kelapa Gading, North
Jakarta, are in the "eastern stream section".(yns)