Five Jakarta Areas on Drought Alert, BPBD Prepares Clean Water Supply
The Jakarta Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) has stated that it is prepared to anticipate the threat of drought in the capital.
“We continue to conduct coordination meetings and routine monitoring every 10 days to determine the most strategic steps to reduce or mitigate the impact of potential disasters in areas that have entered the alert category,” said the Head of Jakarta BPBD, Marulitua Sijabat, on Friday (4/9).
The areas under focus for monitoring are those classified as being under meteorological drought alert by the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). These include Central Jakarta, West Jakarta, East Jakarta, North Jakarta, and the Thousand Islands.
“The number of rainless days has reached 31 days, whereas South Jakarta is not included in the warning, meaning its rainless days are still relatively controlled or safe,” he added.
According to monitoring by the Jakarta BPBD, all alert-status areas remain under control for now. However, reporting services will remain open for any areas wishing to report the impacts of drought.
“If needed, we will immediately distribute clean water to meet the needs of residents. The public can also report drought-related disasters or shortages of clean water to the BP-BD 112 call centre,” said Maruli.
Jakarta BPBD also reported that the availability of clean water from PAM Jaya is still sufficient to meet the needs of the community.
Previously, Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung and the Jakarta BPBD reported drought conditions in the Kalibaru and Semper sub-districts of North Jakarta on Wednesday (2/9). Regarding this, Maruli explained that the drought manifested as a shortage of clean water availability.
“It is not actually every family or every neighbourhood unit in those sub-districts; only a few locations require clean water,” he said.
“The clean water supply decreased due to various factors. However, after we distributed clean water yesterday, all needs have been met,” Maruli added.