T

he Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has predicted that the 2009-2010 wet season in 220 season zones would begin in October and November.

Heavy rainfall has been known to trigger floods in Jakarta and Greater Jakarta areas.

The floods, increasing in intensity and range each year, have several contributing factors, including poor city planning (which ignores water catchment areas), garbage dumped in sewers and rivers, and faulty utility networks (such as electric cables, phones, gas and water).

The city administration has recently prioritized flood management programs in its public works agenda, and has pledged to address flooding (with a US$151 million loan from the World Bank) by dredging rivers; accelerating construction work on the East Flood Canal project; making dams; and dredging drainage areas.

In 2002, one of the worst floods in the city's modern history saw almost 70 percent of Jakarta submerged. The flood paralyzed the city for more than a week and prompted the administration to re-launch its east canal and west canal projects.

The concept for the east and west flood canals was first introduced by the Dutch, who planned to build horseshoe-shaped canals to collect water from 13 rivers flowing into Jakarta.

However, the project, particularly the East Flood Canal, was hardly finished when the worst flood to have hit the city came in 2007.

At that time, floods inundated 70,000 houses, displaced 420,440 people and killed 69, according to the World Health Organization.

According to the National Development Planning Agency (Bapenas), the 2007 flood caused Rp 8.8 trillion (US$932.8 million) in damages.

The city, in addition to having garbage problems, also suffers from the overexploitation of ground water, which will cause land subsidence and the intrusion of water from the sea.

In 2007, the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency's Peni Susanti, who was also the city's mining agency chief at the time, said research conducted between 2002 and 2005 showed that Jakarta's groundwater level had subsided significantly.