Public rues lack of flood information

Public rues lack of flood information

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

During the rainy season, people whose houses are close to the
river are fully aware that they might be hit by floods. Still,
they are often shocked by the coming of the water as there are no
prior warnings from local officials. Many of them can not save
their belongings, particularly when the floods strike at night.

Lalan, 33, a resident of Cipinang Besar Selatan in East
Jakarta, said she lost all her belongings, including her only
item of value, a 14-inch television, when the floods hit last
January.

"We had no chance of saving our belongings as the water came
while we slept soundly," she told The Jakarta Post recently.

Lalan, whose house is located on the banks of the Cipinang
River behind Cipinang Prison, is one of many Jakartans who were
surprised by the floods during the rainy season.

Many said they had never been informed by related officials
about the possibility of floods.

Hendra, a resident from Klender, East Jakarta, whose house is
located on the banks of the Sunter River, said that his area was
often inundated, even though it did not rain in Jakarta.

It occurred when there was heavy rain in upstream areas in
Depok and Bogor in West Java, where the city's 13 main rivers
originated.

Actually, the city administration has a good flood monitoring
system. Water movement in the rivers from Bogor to all flood
gates and flood monitoring posts in the city are closely
monitored by the Public Works Agency flood monitoring center in
Jatibaru, central Jakarta.

"Here, we have all the data about water levels at all flood
gates and flood monitoring posts of all the rivers, which we
receive from all the monitoring officers at the locations," said
Taufik, a monitoring officer on duty at the central flood
monitoring post.

However, there is no system to communicate the available data
about the water movement to the public. Therefore many people are
not well informed about the coming of the water.

According to Taufik, there are always officers on duty in the
flood monitoring center. He said that during the rainy season,
officers monitored water movements around the clock.

"From November, there have been seven officers tasked with
monitoring the water. If the condition worsens, there could be
more officers on duty," Gozali, another monitoring officer, told
the Post on Wednesday.

He said that if there was heavy rain in Bogor and Depok, the
flood monitoring post in Depok would send data about the water
levels in the respective area.

"Actually, Jakarta has time to anticipate floods caused by
water from Bogor and Depok as the water takes six hours to reach
the Manggarai flood gate in South Jakarta," Gozali said.

The flood monitoring center in Jatibaru has guidelines
regulating the opening and closing of floodgates in times of
emergency, graded from one to four.

In Manggarai, for example, the condition would be declared as
alert one if the water level reached 950 centimeters above sea
level, alert two between 850 centimeters and 950 centimeters,
alert three between 750 centimeters and 850 centimeters, and
alert four less than 750 centimeters.

During alert one, only the governor is authorized to open the
gate; the authority is in the hands of the head of the City
Public Works Agency when the condition is declared alert two;
head of the water resource division in the agency has the
authority when the condition is declared alert three, while the
monitoring officer on duty is given the authority during alert
four.