Regencies asked to draft contingency plans

Regencies asked to draft contingency plans

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Around 100 regencies across the country are prone to floods in
the coming months as rainfall is predicted to sharply increase,
the government warned on Monday.

Speaking after a limited cabinet meeting led by President
Megawati Soekarnoputri, Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare
Jusuf Kalla asked the regencies to prepare a contingency plan,
which should include possible evacuation of people in the event
of flooding.

"These 100 regencies should anticipate the possible flood by
taking a series of preventive and emergency measures," Kalla told
reporters after the meeting.

The regencies vulnerable to flood are located on Sumatra, Java
and Sulawesi islands. Kalla said Jakarta was for sure among the
flood-prone areas.

Rainy season is estimated to reach its peak in November,
December and January, with the rainfall slightly increasing than
the same period last year.

"We will coordinate the early warning system in these
regencies, and the regional administrations in the flood-prone
areas are expected to prepare special areas to shelter people
affected by the floods," Kalla said.

Each regency will receive assistance from the National
Coordinating Agency for National Disaster (Bakornas-PB) to
establish the early warning system.

"All the information coming from the Meteorology and
Geophysics Agency will be disseminated to the people as soon as
possible," he said.

The government also instructed regional administrations to
prepare emergency posts to provide first aid for flood victims.

"The early warning system and emergency post should work if
heavy rain begins to fall there," he said.

To discuss the details of the anticipatory measures in the
face of possible floods, all regents of the flood-susceptible
areas will gather in Jakarta on Nov. 20.

Megawati held the limited cabinet meeting to discuss the
threat of floods, following the devastating flash flood in
Langkat regency in North Sumatra, which claimed more than 130
lives.

Floods have always hit many parts of the country during rainy
season, but the disaster has become more imminent in the past
five years, thanks to the worsening environmental damage that
cost water catchment areas.

In 2002, the capital saw one of the worst flood, with some
parts of the city submerging and needing two weeks to flush out
the deluge. At least 25 people were killed in the natural
disaster.

Thousands of people across Java were forced to seek refuge and
lost their crops and belongings due to the big floods.

The government has come under criticism for its failure to
improve the environment and take measures in anticipation of the
natural disaster.

Kalla said the government had introduced the early warning
system in the past two years, but it did not work because most of
the time people did not heed the government's calls.

"People usually refuse to abandon their homes they built along
the river bank and wait until the floods came before leaving the
areas," he remarked.

The minister said the local administrations were expected to
seek every avenue to make people listen to the early warning.