Downpour leads to blocked road

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The rain that fell for about two hours on Friday flooded sections of a number of roads across the city, causing heavy traffic congestion in several areas downtown.

Flood levels ranged from five centimeters to 15 cm high.

In the late afternoon, pools of water had formed along Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur, Central Jakarta, close to the Gambir railway station, causing traffic jams not only along the road, but also on Jl. Menteng Raya, Jl. Ridwan Rais and Jl. Kwitang, where traffic was reduced to a crawl.

Traffic was also backed up on the Semanggi cloverleaf due to flooding along part of Jl. Gatot Subroto. Vehicles had to inch their way slowly from the Kuningan intersection to the front of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in South Jakarta.

Other roads affected by the heavy rain included Jl. Yos Sudarso under the outer ring road in North Jakarta, Jl. Lt. Jen. Suprapto in Central Jakarta, Jl. Kapten Tendean, Jl. Kebayoran Lama, Jl. Sisingamangaraja, close to the Attorney General's Office, Jl. M.T. Haryono and Jl. Pakubuwono, all in South Jakarta, as well as the roads in the Halim area of East Jakarta.

"I was stuck in the Blok M area for about an hour," one taxi driver said.

Another driver voiced his concern that problems could get out of hand in the near future.

"The rain is not so heavy here today, but it flooded the roads. I think it is going to get worse in the next few days as the rain gets heavier and heavier," said a driver of a medium- sized city bus, Sudarno, who was commenting on the conditions along Jl. Let. Jen. Suprapto.

Anton, another taxi driver, complained that his car did not run well after he went through the floods on Jl. Pakubuwono.

"I'll have to go home earlier as the car needs repairs," he complained.

On Jl. Yos Sudarso in Sunter, North Jakarta, construction workers will be faced with draining the water from several sections of the road before they repair the drainage system there.

Many parts of the roads were inundated with water due to poor drainage systems as the water could not directly drain into the narrow ditches running alongside the roads.

The city is clearing the ditches along many of the roads in an effort to minimize the impact that the floods will have during the rainy season.

According to data from the City Public Works Agency, the project to clear the ditches was funded with additional money from the 2002 city budget, and is worth over Rp 19.8 billion.

Sporadic rain has fallen in only some parts of the city over the past few days, but on Friday, it rained in nearly all areas.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said that rainfall would peak from late December until mid-January. It is estimated that the cumulative rainfall will not be as high as what fell last January and February, but it would still be higher than normal.

Thousands of Jakarta residents will likely suffer from floods this rainy season as the city administration has repeatedly warned that 73 areas are prone to flooding.