Kamal Malang flooded for 5 months

Kamal Malang flooded for 5 months

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Twelve-year-old Arman hurriedly stripped off all his clothes and
jumped into a dark green-colored pond, alongside where his four
friends had been playing handball, the only team game possible
after the village's 350-square-meter soccer playground was
flooded to a depth of half-a-meter about five months ago.

And it's not only the soccer playground; in fact, the whole
six-hectares of the Kamal Malang village in the coastal Kosambi
district, Tangerang regency, is inundated with the stagnant,
smelly, garbage-filled floodwaters.

To avoid of getting wet during high tide, many residents --
who mainly earn their livelihoods from fishing -- have raised the
height of their beds.

Diarrhea, dengue fever and skin rashes are not a major problem
for the 5,000 villagers, who claim they are already accustomed to
such diseases.

"The big problem we have to face is the lack of clean water,"
Yeti, 34, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

The mother of four said she had to buy at least two gallons of
water each day from cart vendors for Rp 2,800 (30 US cents) per
gallon.

Like others in the neighborhood, Yeti used clean water only
for cooking, drinking and washing dishes.

"To bathe, we share the public bathrooms with the Jakartans of
Kamal Muara subdistrict," she said.

Kamal Malang borders on Kamal Muara in Penjaringan, North
Jakarta, separated by an canal that is presently filled with dry
mud and garbage.

"We don't have a proper drainage system ... the flood waters
have not subsided since the Idul Fitri holidays last November. If
the rain pours down, the water level can increase to a meter deep
or more within two hours," said Marzuki, chief of the village's
neighborhood unit.

"We have repeatedly asked the regency administration to help,
but maybe because this village cannot be seen from the main road,
we have yet to receive any assistance."

Chairman of Tangerang regental council's Commission D on
development issues, Kurtubi Su'ud, urged the administration to
provide the people with an adequate drainage system.

"The conditions there are proof of the careless planning of
the regency's Public Works Agency in setting up drainage systems
that make the residents depend on the canal," he added.

Separately, the agency's head, Hermansyah, argued that his
office had Rp 60 billion in funds to repair damaged drainage
systems in six districts across the regency, but Kamal Malang
village was not one of them.

"I will propose that the administration allocate more funds to
repair the canal in Kamal Malang," he said.

With such projects usually taking up to six months to get
started, Kamal Malang villagers may well have to wait another
year before they get their soccer playground back.