Heavy rain to hit E. Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara

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.