Floods strand 100,000 heading toward airport
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Desperate residents making futile attempts to save their homes from floodwaters helped strand 100,000 people heading toward the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Tuesday.
Floodwaters up to one-meter deep on Prof. Sedyatmo toll road stranded the motorists on the road connecting Jakarta and the airport and caused a traffic jam three-kilometers long on both sides of the road.
The company which manages the road, PT Jasa Marga, said water began to flood the road when 10 residents from the Kamal Muara subdistrict broke down the dike separating the road and the overflowing swamp on Monday evening.
Hundreds of homes in the subdistrict had been flooded.
Toll road manager Purwadi Anandianto said the residents made two three-meter holes in the dike to lower flood waters inundating their homes.
With help from the Jakarta Public Works Agency, PT Jasa Marga deployed 14 water pumps to reduce water levels on the road. They also patched the dike using plastic sacks and four truckloads of soil.
Purwadi claimed the company suffered Rp 350 million (US$33,650) in lost revenue during the deluge.
"This toll road is always used by at least 140,000 vehicles from two toll gates, in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, and Kapuk, North Jakarta, every single day," he said.
The toll road tariff varies from Rp 2,000 to Rp 3,000 depending on the type of vehicle.
The bill to repair the dike is estimated at Rp 15 million.
Toll operator PT Jasa Marga stopped cars from using the road on Monday night after water levels reached the one-meter level.
Traffic was diverted via roads in Kamal, North Jakarta, or Meruya, West Jakarta.
To help the stranded travelers reach the airport, the company provided several buses to ferry passengers free of charge.
At 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, officers from both the agency and the company were still at work attempting to pump out the remaining floodwater which had been reduced to 10-centimeters deep.
No flights were canceled due to the flooding, the airport information center said.
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso visited the location later on Tuesday telling reporters that the agency would need two days to pump out the water.
He also said the flooding was caused by the toll road's level dropping seven centimeters per year as it was built on a reclaimed-swamp.
Sutiyoso said PT Jasa Marga was responsible for the flood.
"PT Jasa Marga must raise the toll road surface," he said as quoted by detik.com
Paulus Agus Winarso of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), said, in an interview with SCTV, that the current heavy rains were a phenomenon of El Nino.
"As for Jakarta, rain levels since December reaching between 200-300 millimeters (mm) is still below normal."
BMG figures show that rain in Jakarta mainly fell in northern areas.
Paulus said that in Bogor the rain had been less than 50mm per day but there was an indication that could increase in the near future.
He also warned Jakartans to stay alert, especially in the evenings when rain had been falling recently.
He said the rain would increase in intensity till mid February and the rainy season would continue until April or May.
The heavy downpour also caused traffic jams in Mampang, South Jakarta, Jl. Daan Mogot, West Jakarta, and Jl. Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta.