Councilors blast flood prevention program

Councilors blast flood prevention program

JAKARTA (JP): City councilors condemned on Thursday the city's
poor flood prevention program following the deaths of two women
who were swept away by the flood on Wednesday.

Council members for Commission D for development affairs F.X.
Marsiadi and Mardjuan Bakri said the monitoring systems were
particularly weak.

"The early warning system did not perform well in any of the
city's flood prone areas," said Marsiadi of the Indonesian
Military (TNI) faction.

"The city public works agency only concentrates on certain
areas which are prone to annual floods like Manggarai district,
South Jakarta, the Cipinang river in East Jakarta and the Danau
Sunter area in North Jakarta."

He questioned the city public works agency's earlier statement
about readiness in handling city floods. The statement was issued
during a meeting of the public works agency with Commission D
last November.

"That's the reason why the agency should make proper
preparations for all flood-prone areas in the city," he said.

Marsiadi said Wednesday's flood which killed two women,
Musmarini Wiati and Siti Hadiastuti, at the Grogol river in South
Jakarta would not have occurred had the warning system performed
well in the flood-prone areas.

He said that currently the warning system was the most
effective way to save people from the floods because it was still
impossible to make the city entirely free from disaster under
current economic conditions.

Under the system, people prepare for a flood after their local
neighborhood association chiefs, being informed by flood control
posts, alert them before any catastrophe occurs.

The system only performed well in the flood-prone area of
Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta, where the people had information
on an incoming flood hours ahead of time.

Marsiadi said that besides spreading the information through
community leaders, the city authority should also have a patrol
system to prevent people from becoming flood victims.

Mardjuan, however, said that the patrol mechanism could not
perform well because of the limited number of officials.

To date, the city public works agency shows that there are
only 10 duty officials and another 10 regular officials during
flood season for each of the city's five mayoralties.

"The number is not enough because they, of course, can't work
24 hours. The administration should expand the organization of
the flood fighters unit," he said.

Mardjuan, a councilor from the National Mandate Party (PAN),
said the city administration should also have more flood control
posts to monitor the flow of the city's rivers.

Currently, one post in Depok controls the flow of the
Pesanggrahan river and another one in South Jakarta's Sawangan
area controls the Ciliwung river. Meanwhile, there are 13 rivers
total flowing in Jakarta.

The other 11 rivers are Mookervaart, Angke, Grogol, Krukut,
Kalibaru Barat, Kalibaru Timur, Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jati
Kramat and Cakung. (ind)