Heavy rains 'to ease after one or two days'
Heavy rains 'to ease after one or two days'
The torrential rain that has been falling on the capital will
most likely ease after another one or two days of downpours, an
official from the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said on
Wednesday.
Paulus Agus Winarso said that during the past five days, the
heaviest rain had fallen on Tuesday night, but that the downpours
would most likely ease after Friday or Saturday.
"The rains reached their peak on Tuesday for now ... whatever
happens later ... we believe it will not be as bad as Tuesday
night, or probably Wednesday night," Paulus told The Jakarta
Post.
"I do not believe things could get any worse than Tuesday's
conditions," Paulus said.
Paulus made his comments despite a statement released by the
BMG on Wednesday morning warning that worsening weather
conditions would "most likely trigger heavier downpours,
particularly in the west and southern regions of western
Indonesia."
The areas most at risk, according to the statement, included
West Sumatra, Java, Bengkulu, Lampung, the southern and eastern
parts of South Sumatra, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, southern parts of
Kalimantan, southern parts of Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya.
The statement also said that since the start of the year, the
cumulative rainfall figure for Tanjung Priok amounted to 766.8
mm, which was much higher than the normal cumulative figure of
468 mm.
The BMG's head of forecasting and meteorology services, Achmad
Zakir, had earlier said that heavier downpours would occur if a
tropical cyclone from Australia, expected to arrive between
January and February of this year, were actually to strike.
Paulus said on Wednesday that to date there had been
"absolutely no sign" of the cyclone and even if it did arrive,
Indonesia would only be affected "outwardly".
Further flooding could be expected at any time, Paulus said,
due to, among other things, high tides, the inadequate city
drainage system, and the converting of water catchment areas into
residential areas.
"Other than precipitation, the misuse of catchment areas, the
destruction of greenbelts and the city's severely deficient
infrastructure have left the capital totally defenseless in
dealing with such natural disasters," Paulus said.
He added that Jakarta's 13 rivers were no longer able to cope
with such exceptionally heavy rainfall as had occurred over the
last few weeks due to, among other factors, the amount of garbage
being thrown into the rivers and the building of houses on
riverbanks.
"This is the reason why the watercourses cannot handle the
massive run-off," Paulus said, adding that the city's
infrastructure was also not designed to cope with such high
rainfall so that it had to rely on the rivers.