Use drums to alert people of flood

JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta Mayor H. Abdul Kahfi has ordered the chief of Petamburan subdistrict, an area in the mayoralty which is prone to seasonal floods, to promote the use of barrels to alert the residents of floods.

The mayor said if Petamburan subdistrict residents see floods approaching they should strike the barrels repeatedly to let their neighbors prepare for evacuation.

"The sound of barrels being pounded is expected to enable other neighbors to use their time to save their belongings from the water," he said when he visited the Petamburan area.

Suara Pembaruan daily reported on Tuesday that during his visit the mayor was accompanied by his deputy, Mora Tua Simamora and Chief of the Central Jakarta Public Works office H. Bachri Anwar.

The mayor told the Petamburan residents they should act immediately if they know there is a clogged water duct because it will worsen the condition.

Chief of the Central Jakarta Public Works office, H. Bachri Anwar, said the office has build a new drainage ditch with a length of 130 meters, a depth of one meter and a width of 80 centimeters to alleviate floods which are an annual occurrence during the rainy season.

The office spent around Rp 45 million (US$20,547) to build the new drainage ditch.

Worse

Bachri Anwar said the danger of floods in the Petamburan area is predicted to worsen this year because of the fact that the area is lower than the water level of the Banjir Kanal river which passes through it.

Bachri said the possibility of flood in the Petamburan area is heightened by the many existing gutters which are blocked by mud and garbage.

According to Bachri, the office is now preparing thousands of sandbags to stave off flood water from the Banjir Kanal river.

Petamburan District Chief Tumirin said there are approximately 9,000 people living in the area.

Deputy Governor Tb. M. Rais for Economic and Development Affairs, told reporters on Monday that Jakarta will never be free of floods until its infrastructure is improved.

He said the city still needs more check dams and canals.

There are 38 places in Jakarta which are prone to floods, some being the Civil Servants Cooperative Organization housing complex in Bintaro, South Jakarta, while in West Jakarta the areas prone to floods are Palmerah, Kedoya, Angke, Kedaung Kali Angke, Cengkareng, Taman Kota and Tamansari.

In a bid to protect the Civil Servants Cooperative Organization housing complex from seasonal floods, the city administration plans to build a new dam.

The area was inundated by 25-cm of water after the cement dam, which was built with residents' funds, broke due to the strong current of Pesanggrahan river last week.

The residents had built a two-kilometer long stone wall to prevent the annual flood but the strong current broke four meters of the wall. (mas)