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.