Flooding on the city’s main thoroughfares like Jl. Sudirman, Jl. Thamrin
and Jl. Gatot Subroto over the weekend show that Jakarta will remain vulnerable
to flooding for years to come, says the nation’s disaster mitigation agency.
National Disaster Mitigation
Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo said that the three areas were not among
the city’s 78 flood-prone areas. This means the problem of flooding in the city
is becoming more complex, he added.
Jakarta Public Works Agency chief
Ery Basworo claimed that the city had a functioning drainage system and several
water pumps along Jl. Thamrin, but apparently the water from the torrential
rain on Saturday was too much for the pumps to handle.
He said that average rainfall in
Jakarta was 5 to 10 millimeters per hour, while the rainfall on Saturday
reached 150 millimeters per hour.
“This doesn’t happen a lot, so
the pumps could not handle it.”
Ery said that although the
drainage system had been designed to cope with higher-than-average rainfall,
they were not designed for the worst possibilities. “But we don’t plan to add
more pumps due to the limited time we have and the unpredictable intensity of
the rain.”
Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi”
Widodo has said that it is not easy to solve the problem of flooding in
Jakarta. But Saturday’s flooding has triggered questions over whether the
Jakarta administration was ready to face the rainy season and all its problems.
The governor has yet to outline
the steps he will take to prevent flooding such as that over the weekend from
happening again. On Sunday, he visited Thousand Islands regency and did not
comment on the flooding.
On Saturday, a torrential
downpour led to floods and horrendous gridlock on several of Jakarta’s major
thoroughfares.
The BNPB said that Saturday’s
rain had increased the water level of the Ciliwung River at the Katulampa
sluice gate in Bogor, West Java, to 120 centimeters, higher than the normal
level of 50 centimeters.
On early Sunday morning, the
water reached the Manggarai sluice gate in South Jakarta and overflowed to
neighborhoods along the Ciliwung River. The inundated subdistricts were
Makasar, Bidara Cina, Kampung Melayu, Cawang and Kramat, according the agency.
BNPB also warns of further
flooding as water at the Manggarai sluice gate was expected to overflow at
around 3 a.m. as a result of the high water level at Katulampa. Some areas
likely to be inundated are Rawajati, Kalibata, Pengadegan, Kebon Baru, Bukit
Duri and Kampung Melayu.
Sutopo said that in addition to
nature, humans were also a contributing factor to flooding in the city.
“The complexity of these problems
has made it impossible to see Jakarta totally free of floods in the years to
come,” he said. “Many mitigation efforts will not be sufficient to address the
problem of flooding.”
He doubted that the government
and the Jakarta administration would be able to negate the problems affecting
the 78 flood-prone areas by 2014. He said that the East Flood Canal could only
control flooding in 15 areas, while the West Flood Canal could only help six
areas. The dredging of the Pesanggrahan River, the Angke River and the Sunter
River, which is scheduled to finish in 2014, would only solve the problem in 10
areas.
The Jakarta Emergency Dredging
Initiative, in which 13 rivers will be dredged, will only address flooding in
20 areas.
“Twenty-seven other areas will
still be threatened by flooding. It will get worse if there are new spots,”
Sutopo said.
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