Torrential rain leaves parts of city underwater

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hours of torrential rain in the capital on Sunday left some streets under water and caused heavy traffic congestion.

The rain made for hazardous driving conditions, with visibility as low as five meters, forcing motorists to drive slowly with their warning lights on.

Motorcyclists pulled over and sheltered beneath overpasses and bridges.

Some cars were trapped on flooded roads when their engines dies, as seen on Jl. Gatot Subroto in Central Jakarta.

Near the Kebon Nanas intersection in East Jakarta, three public minivans became stuck in water that reached knee level after their water-soaked engines died.

The rain flooded major streets such as Jl. Asia Afrika in South Jakarta, Jl. Otto Iskandardinata in East Jakarta, Jl. Ahmad Yani in East Jakarta, Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta, Jl. Pajang heading to Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta, and Jl. T.B. Simatupang in South Jakarta.

Broken traffic lights at some intersections, including Jl. Pemuda in East Jakarta, worsened the traffic woes.

Heavy traffic also clogged the toll road from Grogol in West Jakarta to Cawang in East Jakarta.

Experts recently predicted that chronic traffic woes in the city would worsen during the rainy season, which is expected to peak in January next year.

Ahmad Syafrudin of the Environmental Task Force said a lack of roads compared to the number of cars in Jakarta was the principal cause of traffic congestion. The situation worsens when it rains as many vehicles pull off to the side of the road, leaving only one or two lanes for traffic.

"A small number of cars taking diversions to avoid flooded roads is enough to disrupt traffic across the whole city. It is like a domino effect," Ahmad said recently.

Jakarta currently has over 4.7 millions vehicles from private cars and public transportation vehicles to motorcycles. To accommodate all these vehicles, the city has just 7,500 kilometers of roads.