Jakarta on flood alert

Jakarta on flood alert

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Storms over Greater Jakarta in the last two days have swamped
several areas and forced around 75 families from Semanan, West
Jakarta, to flee from their drenched homes.

The extremely swollen Ciliwung River has also burst its banks
in places and flooded out homes in Cipinang Besar and Pondok
Bambu in East Jakarta, with water said to be over a meter high.
However, most of the residents preferred to stay home instead of
taking refuge elsewhere.

The situation has forced the Jakarta Public Order Agency head
Soebagio, also the secretary of the Operation Coordinating Board
(Satkorlak) for Disaster Mitigation, to declare the capital on a
siaga 3 (the lowest level alert) in anticipation of more flooding
likely to occur.

"The alert means the Jakarta administration's top officials
must be on-duty and cannot delegate their duties to
subordinates," he said on Tuesday. "They are not allowed to take
leave or go out of town."

One-third of the personnel at the administration must be ready
for an emergency.

"We are also preparing all necessary life-saving equipment,
including eight rubber dinghies," he said.

More floods might occur in the capital as the Jakarta Crisis
Center, which monitors natural disasters including floods,
reported on Tuesday that water levels at the Karet sluice-gate in
Central Jakarta, the Pulogadung sluice-gate in East Jakarta and
the Manggarai sluice-gate in South Jakarta have surpassed their
maximum levels.

The water level at the Karet sluice-gate reached 510
centimeters (cm), higher than its maximum level of 450 cm. In the
Pulogadung sluice-gate, the water level is at 620 cm, 70 cm
higher than its maximum. The water level at the Manggarai sluice-
gate was over its maximum level of 750 cm as it hovered at 760 cm
around noon.

"When the water level exceeds the maximum level, then we must
be on alert for flooding," said Suyono, an employee of the Crisis
Center.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency predicted that rain
would fall on Wednesday.

Soebagio said they had started monitoring water levels each
hour at the 12 main sluice-gates, to detect possible flooding, in
addition to monitoring tide levels in the Java Sea, which, if
very high can compound the possibility of flooding, particularly
in North Jakarta.

He added that all information on the water levels and weather
forecasts had been passed to all subdistrict chiefs via SMS
(short message service) using the 267 cell phones provided by the
administration as a means of communication during emergencies. It
had also doled out Rp 10 million (US$1,190) as an emergency fund
for each of the chiefs.

In early 2002, massive floods swamped vast areas of the
capital and directly affected more than 110,000 families in 138
subdistricts. At least, 30 people died during the floods.

In Bekasi, heavy downpours also inundated a housing complex in
Jatikramat, as the water level was said to be knee-deep.

Houses in Kedungjaya village, Babelan district, have also been
inundated for the last two days as the drains leading to the
Sasak River are covered with mud from road construction being
carried out by state oil company Pertamina.

A villager, Samin, 50, claimed the village had never been
susceptible to floods until Pertamina started digging for oil in
the area beginning in 1999.