Floodwater recedes, but worst expected in immediate future

Ahmad Junaidi and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post

Floodwaters began to recede in almost all parts of the city on Friday, but the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) warned residents of possible widespread flooding in the next few days due to heavy rains and high tides.

Water levels at the city's floodgates at Manggarai, Karet, Pulogadung, Sunter Hulu and Pesanggrahan had dropped to below normal levels after Thursday's floods.

Some coastal areas in North Jakarta, including Teluk Gong, were still flooded on Friday because of high sea tides.

Although much of the water has receded, many residents are expecting the worst is still to come. Many have already moved valuables to higher ground.

BMG said Jakarta could expect heavy rains on Feb. 20, not Feb. 25 as previously reported, which would be compounded by high tides due to the full moon.

"We contacted each other on the possibility of massive floods in the next few days. We have moved our belongings to higher ground," Debbie Prabawati of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta), told The Jakarta Post Friday.

Fakta has hundreds of members in 20 flood-prone areas. Together with other non-governmental organizations, it helped flood victims last year to file a class action lawsuit against, among others, City Governor Sutiyoso, for his failure to tackle flood problems in the city.

The lawsuit was rejected by the Central Jakarta District Court, which stated that the mayors were responsible.

Separately, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara said police posts would be made available as temporary shelters for those forced to leave their homes during the floods.

"They can seek temporary shelter at the police posts if the situation is really an emergency," Makbul told reporters at Jakarta Police Headquarters.

Makbul said the posts functioned as public service centers in addition to security posts.

Jakarta police have more than 90 police subprecincts across Greater Jakarta (minus Bogor) with hundreds of police stations. Some posts, however, have also been flooded.

Makbul said police were also ready with "traditional and modern equipment" like hand-made bamboo rafts or rubber dinghies to evacuate flood victims.

"We have distributed the equipment to every police precinct which will pass them to each police subprecinct," said Makbul.

Thursday's floods swamped thousands of houses, including dozens of school buildings in the city. Students whose schools were flooded were told to stay home.

So far there have been no reports of casualties. But a 10-year-old boy, identified as Andi, was reportedly still missing after the Cakung River overflowed Thursday.

Last year's floods claimed 34 lives, forced almost 400,000 people to be evacuated from their homes and inflicted losses of billions of rupiah.

Sutiyoso admitted on Friday that his administration was powerlessness to save the city from floods because of a lack of financial support.

"What we are doing now is to minimize possible losses which would be suffered by the residents because of the floods," the governor told reporters at City Hall.

The administration claimed it repeatedly begged the central government to help finance flood-related projects worth a total of Rp 12 trillion (US$1.3 billion), including the development of the East Flood Canal and a normalization program of the city's 13 rivers.

The central government had promised to help finance the projects following the floods which paralyzed the city for several weeks last February.