Preparing for the

Preparing for the floods

From Kompas

It is still fresh in the memory of Jakartans how major flooding hit the city early this year. At present, Jakarta and most parts of Indonesia are facing a drought. Clean ground water is hard to find. Rice fields cannot be irrigated.

Well, when the floods come, the government busily tries to find a scapegoat. The measures they have taken, purportedly to avoid flooding, are usually haphazard, although a great amount of money is needed for this purpose.

During the dry season -- or even when drought has set in -- the government should make preparations for the floods. Rivers are dry and can easily be dredged. In this way, flooding in Jakarta could be averted in the next rainy season.

EMAN SULISTIANI

Depok, West Java