Officials blamed for not issuing flood warning

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Floodwaters, which had inundated the city for the past two days, receded on Thursday while Governor Sutiyoso held the first flood meeting, during which he blamed the city officials concerned for their failure to give early warnings to residents.

The flooding, caused by heavy rains since Tuesday and the overflowing Ciliwung River, which reached a depth of 100 centimeters, receded at about 10 a.m. on Thursday in almost all parts of the city.

Thousands of residents who took refugee during the flood, returned home and could be observed cleaning mud from the floors of their houses.

Yayang, a resident of Kampung Pulo, Jatinegara Barat, East Jakarta, claimed his family did not sustain any major loss due to the flooding.

"But we've had to clean all our furniture," Yayang, whose family has a small shop in the area, told The Jakarta Post.

Most houses in Kampung Pulo, a housing area on the Ciliwung riverbank, have been cleaned, although the drainage channels there were still muddy.

Yayang said that Kampung Pulo residents had grown accustomed to seasonal flooding that occurred almost every year and had made no preparations for the flooding.

"We experience flooding almost every year, so every time the river water rises, we start packing our valuables and store them on the second floor of our houses," he said.

East Jakarta Mayor M. Koesnan said that as many as 8,626 families, or 26,000 people in seven subdistricts in East Jakarta, took refuge during the flooding over the past two days.

"The people have returned home, the floodwaters have receded," Koesnan said at the meeting with Sutiyoso at City Hall.

Koesnan, the other four mayors and city officials reported the current situation to Sutiyoso. But most just referred to good news.

"The situation in Central Jakarta in under control. There was no flooding, just puddles in several areas," Central Jakarta Mayor Hosea Petra Lumbun said at the meeting.

The city's five mayors claimed that they had prepared hundreds of shelters, plus dozens of tents and canoes, as well as reserving tons of rice and hundreds of cartons of instant noodles.

However, Sutiyoso expressed disappointment at his officials for their failure to warn residents before flooding hit the areas concerned.

He asked the officials to be alert around the clock as flooding could occur during the next few weeks due to heavy rains and high tides, due to peak on Feb. 20.

Massive flooding hit the city during February last year, causing the death of about 30 people, the evacuation of tens of thousands of others and losses amounting to hundreds of billions of rupiah. Sutiyoso also blamed nature as the cause of the flooding, rather than his administration's failure to deal with it.

This year, the city allocated Rp 355 billion for projects to handle flood problems, such as land appropriation for the East Flood Canal and clearing obstructions to the flow of rivers.

Separately, climatologist at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) Paulus A. Winarso told the Post that Jakartans had to be more alert next week when, he predicted, the rainy season would reach its peak.

"It doesn't really matter when it will end but residents should be more alert over the next two weeks," said Paulus.

"Residents should also pay attention to the full moon, which affects the high tide."

Rainfall would decrease, according to Paulus, by the end of this month.

Asked about the likelihood of widespread flooding, as occurred last year, Paulus said the possibility existed, but it was slim.