Recent floods not national disaster: Govt

Recent floods not national disaster: Govt

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has refused to characterize the recent
extensive floods that have paralyzed the capital and other cities
throughout the country as a national disaster despite mounting
pressure from the public and the fact that the catastrophe has
killed at least 58 people nationwide.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla told
reporters after a meeting with Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso at City
Hall that it was not necessary to designate the recent calamity a
national disaster.

"There is no need to declare it a national disaster. It's just
a (common) disaster," Jusuf said after the meeting which was also
attended by five other Cabinet ministers.

Impatient with the government's sluggish and inept response to
the floods, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien
Rais urged the government on Monday to declare a national
disaster in the wake of the calamity, which claimed more than 30
lives in Jakarta alone.

"What the government has been doing is far from being
adequate. The designation of the floods as a national disaster is
needed to help maximize interdepartmental cooperation," Amien
said after receiving the Czech deputy prime minister and foreign
affairs minister M. Jan Kavan.

Amien added that judging from the impact of the flooding
nationwide, it was more than enough to warrant the declaration of
a national disaster.

To make matter worse, up to now there were still many
complaints from flood victims complaining that humanitarian aid
had yet to reach them, he said.

The House of Representatives' Commission I on foreign policy
and security affairs also concurred in Amien's remarks.

The declaration of a national disaster, according to
commission member Ibrahim Ambong would enable all national
forces, including the military, to launch a concerted effort to
deal with the disaster.

Rather than just declaring the floods to be a national
disaster, however, Jusuf was of the opinion that it was more
important for the central government to take action so as to help
local administrations deal with the aftermath of the flooding.

Arguing that the declaration of a national disaster was more
appropriate to past years when the government was very
centralized, he continued by saying, "It's now the regional
autonomy era. We don't need those kinds of terms. Action is more
important than words."

According to the Minister of Resettlement and Regional
Infrastructure, Soenarno, the cost of the physical damage caused
by the floods in Jakarta had yet to be calculated, but the cost
of similar calamities in North Sumatra, South Sulawesi and Java's
north coast was estimated at about Rp 150 billion.

Meanwhile, a lack of water catchment areas due to the rapid
increase in the population of the capital city was to blame for
the severe flooding and landslides that had hit the capital city
and surrounding areas.

"Heavier rainfall would not make any difference if there were
good water catchment areas. But, the ability to absorb water has
been decreasing," State Minister for the Environment Nabiel
Makarim told reporters after a hearing with legislators here on
Monday.

Nabiel revealed that there had been efforts made by the
government to prevent the floods, but rampant violations of the
regulations had thwarted them.

The minister recalled a number of violations by businessmen
and state officials who were opposed to environmental
conservation policies.

When Emil Salim was the environment minister in the 1980s, he
had issued a decree banning the construction of villas in the
hilly resort area of Puncak in Bogor, West Java, from which all
the major rivers traversing Jakarta originate.

But business interests had prevailed and the conservation
policies had been abandoned.

"Several lakes between Bogor and Jakarta have also been
reclaimed to build real estate complexes. This has reduced the
extent of water catchment areas," Nabiel said.

Speaking to Antara in New York, Emil Salim said the government
could have prevented the disaster 10 years ago through an
integrated conservation program.

Unfortunately, he said, his recommendations were ignored by
his colleagues in government.

"Now, we can learn a lesson about the causes and the effects
of flooding," Emil said.

In a related development, Minister of Research and Technology
Hatta Rajasa said the government would try to artificially modify
the weather so as to reduce the amount of rain falling on Jakarta
and its surrounding areas.

"Through such modification, the Cumulus clouds above the
capital city will be driven further away," he said, adding that a
similar modification program had been successfully undertaken
previously in Semarang, Central Java, and had managed to reduce
rainfall by 30 percent.