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.