Flood produces sinking feeling for Bekasi traders
Flood produces sinking feeling for Bekasi traders
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
It's was far from being business as usual at the Mal Mega Bekasi
shopping complex on Tuesday with the flood waters that have been
inundating the center since early on Sunday yet to subside.
The water in the shopping mall's ground floor was still up to
one meter deep.
One of the 600 traders in the mall, Alay, 45, said that the
2.5-meter-deep flood on Sunday had destroyed his merchandise --
mostly electronics goods.
The traders, he said, were demanding that the building
management company, PT Karsindo Utama, pay them compensation.
"In our contracts, the building management stated that the
ground floor would not be affected by the annual flooding in
Bekasi," he was quoted as saying by Antara.
On Tuesday, municipality pump trucks were still pumping out
water from around the mall.
Meanwhile, the building management announced that the biggest
mall in Bekasi would be closed indefinitely.
PT Karsindo director Gunarso said he hoped that people would
understand that the flood was an act of God.
"However, we are responsible and will pay them compensation
after we calculate the extent of the losses," he said.
Sunday's flood, which it is said was the biggest ever flood in
the municipality and upstream areas, not only hit the shopping
mall, which is located at the Bekasi Barat toll gate -- alongside
Giant hypermarket, Metropolitan Mall I and II, the Ramayana and
Hero department stores, and the Horison Hotel -- but also
residential areas.
People living in the Jaka Kencana housing complex in Pekayon
demanded that the administration fix the levees lining the Bekasi
and Cikeas rivers, whose poor condition they said contributed to
the huge flood, besides the fact that continuous heavy rain fell
for over 10 hours starting on Saturday.
"These embankments were built two years ago but now they are
badly cracked ... We have frequently told the administration to
fix them, but our pleas always fell on deaf ears," Mustafa, a
local resident, was quoted as saying by Tempointeraktif.com.
"We don't want to have another huge flood like Sunday's," he
added.