Last week's flood losses reach Rp 50 billion
Last week's flood losses reach Rp 50 billion
JAKARTA (JP): Last week's floods, which killed 20 people, have caused more than Rp 50 billion (US$23.million) in material losses, according to official figures.
The deputy governor for social welfare, R.S. Museno, said over the weekend that the high figure was caused by the flood affecting such a large proportion of the city. More than 544,000 people in 139 of the city's 265 subdistricts suffered.
The January flood killed 10 people, caused an estimated loss of Rp 39.54 billion and affected more than 354,000 people, in 55 subdistricts. It was caused by the Ciliwung and Cisadane rivers being unable to accommodate water from Bogor, West Java
"Last week's flood was bigger because it almost drowned the whole city, including the business district. The Glodok business area in West Java was closed for three days," Museno said. This alone caused billions of rupiah in losses.
The height of the floodwaters reached two meters in some areas, he added.
Museno said that his office has distributed food, clothes and medical assistance to each mayoralty and the Social Services' Ministry donated Rp 375 million.
"The ministry's office contributed aid packages worth Rp 375 million and each mayoralty got Rp 75 million," he said.
Refuge
Museno added that the majority of Jakartans who had to seek temporary refuge from the floods have now returned to their homes.
The deputy governor for economic and development affairs, Tb. M. Rais, said that last week's floods were caused by the inability of Jakarta's 13 rivers to cope with the exceptionally high rainfall.
Rais said that owing to various factors such as garbage thrown in the rivers and houses being built on riverbanks, the waterways could not handle the massive run-off. The city's infrastructure is not designed to cope with such high rainfall so it relies on the rivers.
Meanwhile, the head of the city sanitation agency, M. Subasir, said yesterday that his employees have collected 2,000 cubic meters of garbage since the floods.
"It's not as much as after the one in January in which we had to pick up about 10,000 cubic meters of garbage," he said. (yns)