The worst floods in many decades hit the capital

The worst floods in many decades hit the capital

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The current flooding in Jakarta was being called the worst in
the modern history of the city as flooding continued through
Wednesday affecting hundreds of thousands of people following
five days of incessant rain in the city and in the highlands of
Depok and Bogor, where the city's 13 rivers originate.

The head of the City's Public Order Agency, Firman Hutajulu,
whose agency is tasked with helping flood victims, said on
Wednesday that over 233,000 people from across the capital were
seriously affected. Millions more were indirectly affected by
traffic jams.

He said that 30,000 flood victims had been evacuated to a
number of public facilities, such as school buildings, mosques,
office buildings and temporary tents.

The worst affected area was North Jakarta, where some 94,000
people have their houses inundated, followed by West Jakarta with
84,000 victims, East Jakarta with about 37,000, South Jakarta
with 17,867 and Central Jakarta with 1,591.

The floods on Wednesday also claimed six lives, including
Abdul Rosyid, 20, a resident of Cawang subdistrict, Lukman, 25,
from Pondok Pinang subdistrict, Pendi ,70, and Nursellah in
Kramat Jati district, as well as the wife and a child of Lt. col.
Guswandar in Cakung, North Jakarta.

This year the annual floods are not only affecting slum areas,
but also a number of luxury housing complexes, such as Kedoya
Permai and Puri Kembangan in West Jakarta, which had never been
affected before.

The floods were also worse. "The flood water in Ciledug has
reached about three meters while in the previous years it was no
less than one meter," said a former resident of the area.

In Cawang subdistrict, East Jakarta, water levels were
recorded at six meters, forcing as many as 3,655 people to leave
their houses.

In Manggarai, South Jakarta, water inundated hundreds of
houses, sparking panic among locals.

The floodgate there also showed an alarming level of water,
which reached 990 centimeters. Its normal level during the rainy
season is 800 centimeters.

A minor incident occurred near the floodgate when dozens of
people tried to force the public works officers to open the gate
so that the flood waters would ease in their areas.

But the officers, with the help of the police, managed to
prevent them from causing any further disruption.

Secretary of the city's control center for social
disturbances, Raya Siahaan, said if the gate was opened, half of
Jakarta, including exclusive housing complexes in Menteng,
Central Jakarta, where former president Soeharto lives, would be
severely affected.

In Tangerang, the floods spread on Wednesday to three more
districts, Batu Ceper, Neglasari and Karawaci, inundating 3,100
more houses. But no fatalities were reported.

With the wider flooding on Wednesday, a total of about 10,000
houses were inundated in nine districts of the municipality. On
Tuesday six districts were also affected, namely Jatiuwung,
Cipondoh, Periuk, Karang Tengah, Cibodas and Pinang.

Tangerang Deputy Mayor Harry Mulya Zain said that based on
reports from the affected districts, flood waters had reached the
height of between one and three meters.

The municipal secretary Achmad Sudjai said that his
administration would summon a number of developers, which built
the housing complexes in the nine districts, to discuss how to
solve the flood problems, which are being partly blamed on them.

But local residents have blamed the municipal administration.
They said that the administration violated its own master plan by
giving the contracts to developers.

Achmad said that Tangerang Mayor M. Thamrin had instructed all
his subordinates to evacuate all of the flood victims to safe
places. The administration also allocated some Rp 250 million to
assist all the victims.

In Bogor, heavy rains continued to pour incessantly on
Wednesday, causing the upper Ciliwung river, which empties into
the Java Sea after meandering through Jakarta, to overflow.

The Ciliwung river's floodgate in Katulampa saw its water
level increase sharply from between 70 and 80 centimeters on
Tuesday to over 160 early on Wednesday.

Aos Firdaus, a staff member at the floodgate said that if the
water level reached 160 that meant they had to be on "first-alert
status", because the river was dangerously close to overflowing
its banks, which could mean unprecedented problems.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso declared on Wednesday first alert,
particularly for those who live along the Ciliwung and the
Pasanggrahan. He urged all people living there to leave their
houses immediately as the water could sweep them away at anytime.

Paulus Agus Winarso, an expert of the Meteorology and
Geophysics Agency (BMG), said the floods in the capital were
worsened by the heavy rains in Bekasi with a rainfall of 250
millimeters and Bogor with a rainfall of 150 millimeters on
Tuesday.

Paulus said the deluge in Jakarta Wednesday was not as bad as
Tuesday, only measuring about 100 millimeters. "But because the
rain took place for three consecutive days, it contributed
significantly to the floods," he added.

Previously, he said that the rains during the last major flood
that occurred in 1996 reached a total of 400 millimeters.