Flood victims clean up under the sun

Flood victims clean up under the sun

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The sun finally showed on Saturday after days of heavy rain and
saw water recede from flood victims' homes.

People who had moved to temporary shelters started to return
home, although those whose houses were still inundated remained.

In Semanan subdistrict, West Jakarta, residents were seen
braving waist-deep water to check on their houses and collect
some belongings, particularly clothes.

Then they returned to a nearby mosque, housing complex or the
railway tracks to wait for their neighborhood to dry out.

On Friday, the water was around two meters high in some places
and some residents used styrofoam rafts to move around.

"I can dry my clothes, which were immersed for several days,
along the railway fence," said Henri, who said he had not be able
to bathe or change clothes for three days.

In Kampung Melayu subdistrict, East Jakarta, hundreds of
residents left the shelter of St. Maria Church and returned to
their homes.

"Thank God it's not raining today, and the water has receded,"
said resident Atmi, who was busy removing pools of water and mud
from her house.

Others also cleaned up their houses and checked their
belongings, which they had stored in the ceilings of their homes
before floodwater submerged the area.

Other residents sat outside their homes, tending to their
soaking wet clothes, mattresses and furniture placed along the
alleys to dry out.

The alleys were blanketed with mud and litter from the nearby
Ciliwung River, which burst its banks.

Several passersby carefully picked their way through the
alleys, taking care not to slip in the mud or fall in the
gutters.

Ropes used to guide people when leaving their flooded homes
remained strung from one house to another.

Herman, a resident sitting outside his house with his friend
Yanto, said most people preferred to stay outside their houses as
it was humid indoors.

They all opened doors and windows wide to improve air
circulation.

"It's always the same after flooding. The air inside the house
is humid and stinks," Herman said.

He added that some residents were considering returning to the
shelters on Saturday night due to the situation.

But no matter how fed up the residents are with floods and
being forced to leave their homes, they cannot do a thing about
them and are more or less resigned to the annual occurrence.

Herman said that living in temporary shelters was inconvenient
not because of the conditions but because of all the media
attention.

"We are bored with being in the media spotlight and still
nothing significant is done to stop our homes being flooded," he
said.

Yanto demanded that the municipality manage the sluice gates
better and not suddenly open them when the water level rose
during heavy rain.

"Maybe the authorities bow to the request of the wealthy
upstream, who would be humiliated if the sluice gates overflowed
and flooded their estates," he said with a mischievous smile.