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.