Rainy season catches city govt with their pants down

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Residents in several flood-prone areas across the capital have not yet prepared for potential floods this rainy season, although the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has warned Jakartans that rains would peak within two weeks.

Those living in Kapuk, Kali Kamal, Penjaringan and Pluit in North Jakarta, and along the banks of the West Flood Canal in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, had still not been informed by subdistrict administrations as to their contingency plans.

Mamat, a 37-year-old squatter who lives along the canal, said he had not heard anything from subdistrict officials as to the measures he should take in coping with the annual floods, even though the area was submerged in over one meter of water last year.

"The neighborhood unit chief only told us to be prepared for the floods. Nothing else. I don't know what to do," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Marzuki, 45, a resident of Kapuk, said he had not seen nor heard officials preparing in anticipation of floods, such as readying rubber dinghies and setting up flood centers.

"What dinghy? It seems the officials will leave us to face the floods on our own. Last year, they did not come until there was a death or unless they were criticized on TV," said Marzuki, whose house was inundated by two meters of water last year.

A private elementary school in Penjaringan has been flooded for a week, following heavy rains that fell several days in a row. The school is located next to the former site of Krida Sasana sport stadium. The plot, which is being turned into a shopping center, has been raised by about a meter, thereby spilling a greater volume of runoff down into the school.

The 1,000 students have continued to study in the school, although they are surrounded by water.

Meanwhile, the school has apparently become a victim of official neglect.

"I am afraid the condition will become worse in coming days as the rain continues to fall. Subdistrict and district heads have given up on asking for help from the city... Parents fear the threat of dengue fever because of the still water surrounding the school," Pluit Raya principal Mushonef said.

BMG Meteorological Public Services head Achmad Zakir said the precipitation would become heavier over the next two weeks.

"Rain will only fall during the afternoons and evenings this next week at an average of 15 millimeters per day -- a light downpour. After that, precipitation could reach an average 50mm per day," he told the Post.

Three consecutive days of heavy rains -- 50mm to 75mm daily -- would be enough to cause floods in the capital.

The biggest flood to hit the capital most recently was in early 2002, when 168 of the 262 city subdistricts were swamped, 31 people were killed, more than 300,000 others were forced from their homes to stay in makeshift shelters and transportation systems were paralyzed for about a week.