Elementary school students get a lesson in flood warnings

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 06/27/2009 11:03 AM  |  City

With floods occurring annually in many parts of Jakarta, several schools in Jakarta and Bogor organized a workshop recently on flood predictions and early warnings.

On the sidelines of the workshop, fifth grader Roni Andika said students could save themselves if floods were coming.

Roni, whose school, SD Perguruan Rakyat 2, is in flood-prone Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta, said, "I think we can save ourselves because we can make a call to ask for information about water levels at the sluice gates in the upper parts of the city, to anticipate flooding".

The three-hour workshop was organized by Plan Indonesia (PI), the Indonesian Disaster Prevention Foundation (YTBI) and the Indonesian Environmental Information Center (PILI).

The event involved 100 students from four elementary schools in Jakarta and six elementary schools in Bogor, West Java.

Husein Al Habsyi, a fourth grader from SDN 3 elementary school, Bogor, said his school could help people in Jakarta prepare for floods, because his school building is next to Katulampa sluice gate which monitors water levels in the upper Ciliwung river.

Students could give early warnings to friends in Jakarta if Katulampa sluice gate has high water levels and continuous heavy downpours are reported in Bogor, he said.

"This workshop is a new experience for me, but I think I can help people *with the early warning system*," Husein said.

Also present at the workshop was Andi, an officer from Katulampa sluice gate, who explained the relationship between water levels and warning levels.

"If the water is more than 80 centimeters deep, we call it a second-level warning. This means we are expecting possible flooding in Jakarta. If the water continues to rise over 1 meter then we must call Jakarta to prepare them for unexpected flooding," Andi said. (nia)

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