Flood death toll rises to 20, two still missing
Flood death toll rises to 20, two still missing
JAKARTA (JP): Seven more bodies were found yesterday, raising the death toll to 20 in the aftermath of floods which struck the city over the weekend.
The city's flood control office reported that seven bodies were found in city's rivers as the water started to recede.
Two of the victims were nine-month-old infants Nining and Suhendra, residents of Papanggo, Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta. Shohirin, 20, a resident of Galur in Central Jakarta, Johanes, 54, of Pulomas in East Jakarta, Husein, 11, from Kampung Sawah in South Jakarta, Sumpeno, 28, and his eight-month-old baby from Depok whose bodies were found in Sunter Agung, North Jakarta.
The report said that there are still two people missing, Kisno, 23, and Nasir, 20, of Tambora, West Jakarta.
The head of the office, R. Sitindjak, did not preclude the possibility of the death toll rising, saying yesterday that "It is possible that there will be more victims."
Four of the victims were electrocuted while the remaining 16 were washed away by floodwaters and drowned.
Torrential rains during the weekend have inundated a total of 139 subdistricts in the city and houses inhabited by 134,354 families.
The height of the floodwaters reached as high as two meters in some areas.
Until yesterday morning several locations in four mayoralties were still covered by water which reached as high as 70 centimeters.
The areas were Serdang and Sumur Batu subdistricts in Central Jakarta, Penjaringan and Pademangan subdistricts in North Jakarta, Jelambar Baru and Kapuk subdistricts in West Jakarta and Pengadegan subdistrict in South Jakarta.
The city health agency reported that it has given medical treatment to more than 700 people who are staying in 40 temporary shelters in five mayoralties.
The head of the agency said that 55 percent of the victims were treated for respiratory diseases, 12 percent for skin diseases, seven percent for diarrhea, five percent for minor injuries and the remaining 21 percent for other diseases.
Meanwhile the Cisadane-Ciliwung river development project warned that floods may hit the city in the near future because of the possibility that rains will continue to fall in Bogor in West Java.
The technical assistant on the project, Sudadi, said that due to factors such as high tides, a poorly installed city drainage system and water catchment areas turned into residential complexes, Jakarta is still prone to flood.
"In Ciawi the water level is at 60 centimeters, while normally it is only 30 cm. If it reaches 90, 120 and 150 centimeters, Jakarta will be flooded again," Sudadi said.
The city administration has admitted that the cause of the flood was rain and the inadequate facilities to deal with such a natural disaster.
The deputy governor for economic and development affairs, Tb. M. Rais, said on Monday that Jakarta's 13 rivers are no longer able to cope with the exceptionally high rainfall of the last few weeks.
Rais said that due to various factors such as garbage thrown in the rivers and houses built on riverbanks, the riverways cannot handle the massive run-off.
He said that the city's infrastructure is not designed to cope with such high rainfall therefore it relies on the rivers.
"We heavily rely on the rivers to dump the water because most of the city's ponds are no longer water catchment areas but have been turned into residential areas," Rais said. (yns)