People become resilient during disaster
Leo Wahyudi S, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Garbage has always been hated by people, especially when it is dirty and smelly. However, they have welcomed the new function of garbage carts during flooding that has plagued Jakarta since Monday.
In some flooded areas, people have taken advantage of garbage carts as a means of transportation to either convey people through the floodwaters or to evacuate others from their inundated houses.
Carts are being used not only to carry people, but also their belongings like motorcycles, televisions, mattresses, kitchen equipment and the like. Each cart can carry between three and seven people, depending on their size. One person steers the cart from the front, and three to five people push it from behind.
Their customers are people wanting to take refuge in temporary shelters or relatives' houses.
The cart operators have their own marketing strategy to attract passengers.
"If you want to be safe and dry, take a ride. It's cheap, only Rp 3,000 (29 U.S. cents). If you'd prefer to get wet, plunge into the water. That's free," sang out Jatmiko, a cart operator on Jl. Pasar Pengampuan, Kembangan, West Jakarta, in a bid to drum up business.
He often approached motorists, hoping they would take a ride on his cart.
"You can't go through the water. Take a ride. For a motorcycle it's only Rp 10,000," he said, adding that he sometimes charged Rp 20,000 for a motorcycle with the rider. The rate depends on the water depth and current.
To persuade more people to go on the carts, another operator announced that the current from the overflowing Pesanggrahan River was very strong and had swept away a taxi on Jl. Pasar Pengampuan on Friday night. The taxi was finally found stranded in water-logged bushes and mud.
Jatmiko and five friends claimed they had earned Rp 300,000 in only three hours, ferrying people in a vegetable cart. They divided the money evenly, each getting Rp 50,000.
The amount was much higher than their daily profit as vegetable vendors.
Another cart operator, Mastur, and three friends earned Rp 125,000. Mastur borrowed his wife's vegetable cart.
"I'm glad my husband has a temporary, lucrative job," said Mastur's wife Sasri, adding that her husband had recently lost his job.
Agus, a resident of South Jakarta's Cipulir, which saw major flooding, said the temporary job had been a blessing in disguise.
"Instead of being depressed because of the disaster, I'm rather enjoying doing this job," said the laborer.
Agus and his friends' working hours depend on how long they can put up with the cold and dirty water.
The success of the cart operators has inspired others to follow their lead.
"We don't have any customers yet because this is our first time out," another operator in Cipulir, Mizwar, said, before calling out to prospective customers.
He was holding onto a garbage cart, ignoring the stench and the garbage floating around him. Perhaps he dreams of collecting Rp 100,000 in the few hours left before the floodwater recedes. Perhaps, like other operators, he also wishes the rain would continue.