Jakarta braces for annual floods

Jakarta braces for annual floods

Damar Harsanto
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

As part of an early warning system, telemetric devices have been
installed at monitoring posts along the Ciliwung and Cisadane
rivers, but officials still warned on Thursday that little could
be done to prevent floods in the capital.

The director of Task Force for the Development of the Ciliwung
and Cisadane Rivers at the Ministry of Public Works, Pitoyo
Subandrio, also said that his office now had 11 mobile pumps
available for areas that may flood.

The smallest of the pumps is capable of pumping water out at
up to 80 liters per second, while the largest can do 400 liters
per second. The government of Japan has donated the pumps to the
ministry under a grant scheme.

"We have placed some telemetric devices at river monitoring
posts in Katulampa and Depok. The devices are connected online to
the flood monitoring center here so we can get real-time
information about the water level and situation in the upstream
areas much earlier to anticipate floods," Pitoyo said.

Pitoyo added that at least 130 flood monitors would be in
place around the clock at the monitoring posts with their radios
on as a back-up communication system for the telemetric devices.

Pumps are vital during the flood season since at least 78
locations in the city are prone to flooding. Forty percent of the
city's area is below sea level. The condition is further worsened
by the presence of 13 major rivers flowing through the capital.

The task force has also readied eight rubber dinghies, several
trucks to load sandbags and two long-legged cranes.

Djoko Prajitno, the task force's coordinator, warned, however,
that little could be done to prevent floods that have become
annual occurrences in the city of approximately 12 million
people.

"In terms of flood mitigations instruments and an early
warning system, we are better prepared than in 2002, when we had
to cope with the huge flood in January of that year. Still, we
cannot ensure that there will be not be a flood of similar
magnitude in the future," said Djoko.

The worst flood in the city's modern history took place early
in 2002 when floods inundated two-thirds of the city, killing at
least 31 residents and forcing over 300,000 people to flee their
homes for temporary shelters. The flood paralyzed the capital for
nearly a month.

Djoko said that flooding was nearly inevitable in the city
because of the absence of system to control the volume of river
water coming from the hills to the south of the city.

He revealed that no single sluice gate was available along the
rivers to block or slow down the flow of water in the case of
large storms in the mountains near Bogor.

"Many residents have misunderstood that we have sluice gates
that can control the water level. That's just not true. We don't
have them," he said.

He explained that the flow of river water from areas up stream
near Katulampa would take four hours to reach Depok and between
eight and nine hours to be at the Manggarai sluice gate in South
Jakarta.

"That's why our main concern is how to send an early warning
as quickly as possible to the residents along the rivers to
prepare for evacuation if necessary," he said.