Heavy rain to hit E. Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara
Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Some rain is expected in Jakarta, but not on the order of last week's storms, over the next few days, but heavy thunderstorms are expected to pound East Java, Central Java, Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara in the coming days beginning Sunday, meteorologists predict.
An official at the Geophysical and Meteorological Agency (BMG), Maman, said the rains were linked to typhoon Chris which is moving from Australia at a speed of five knots, or about 9 km/hr, but could reach 55 knots soon.
"Rains in the capital will not quickly recede, mind you... There will be bad rains in the coming days, but they will eventually ease by the end of this month," Maman told The Jakarta Post.
Maman said satellite reports received by BMG as of 6 p.m. on Sunday revealed that severe storms would hit East Java, Central Java, Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara as an "indirect effect" of the typhoon.
"Residents of these areas, particularly East Java, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara... please be careful and take all necessary precautions. Jakarta will at least be free of heavy thunderstorms for sometime," Maman said.
Separately, weather expert Hendro Purnomo confirmed that the hardest hit areas could be Bali and the islands of Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Kupang and East Timor.
"Jakarta will have heavy rains... probably with thunder and lightning, but the worst is yet to come. Now, the hardest-hit areas will be East Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara," Hendro told the Post.
Floods resulting from rains have left at least 200,000 people displaced in Jakarta.
Areas previously free of flooding, including the State Palace and the Vice Presidential Palace compounds, were ankle deep on Saturday.
Thousands of police and troops have been deployed since then to support relief efforts, with the government, private donors and emergency groups distributing food aid.
The death toll from flood-related incidents in the capital and its surrounding towns since Tuesday has hit 28, including an eight-month-old baby.
Maman said that heavy rain was just one of factors that had caused the recent flooding, probably the worst in Jakarta's modern history in terms of areas affected and fatalities.
"The immediate problem for the capital is not the rain... but the flooding. The tons and tons of trash clogging the capital's floodgates and rivers, is causing the waters to overflow," Maman said.
BMG had last year predicted abundant rainfall for January and February this year and warned of flooding should heavy rains occur in the upper courses of the 13 rivers that flow through the capital.
Apart from the trash clogging up water ways, other factors contributing to the floods in the city were high tides in the Java Sea, the poor state of the drainage system and unregulated building on catchment areas, BMG said.
The drainage system plays an important role in preventing flooding since each year the city receives a similar amount of rain, according to the agency.
Another reason for the city's vulnerability to floods is the fact that around 40 percent of the capital lies below sea level.
Environmental groups have blamed the floods on the City administration's failure to maintain green areas in the city and its surroundings, which should be utilized as catchment areas.
In its statement on Saturday, the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) said the most recent floods resulted from the administration's failure in land use planning and the absence of a political will to conserve forests, rather than the global warming phenomenon.
"Indeed the green house effect resulting from the global warming has contributed to the abundant rainfall, but it would have not caused floods if the local government was serious about preserving catchment areas and wetland in land use planning," Walhi executive director Ahmad Safrudin said in the statement.
Citing an example, Safrudin said the city was now paying the price for its "willingness" to allow villas to be built in the Cipanas catchment area on the foot of Mount Gede, Pangrango in Bogor, West Java as well as at Angke Kapuk mangrove forest in North Jakarta.
The mangrove forest, he said, could hold up to 9.1 million cubic meters of water at its original size of 1,140 hectares. But since a "reclamation" project changed part of the forest into a golf course and a housing complex in 1992, the area's capability to hold water dropped by at least two thirds.