Since the Situ Gintung dam burst earlier this year, the areas have become more prone to flooding, because the dam that once retained flood water from the river is no longer in place.

Deputy Governor Prijanto said the system would station several workers in the former dam area who could make quick calls to heads of nearby residential areas whenever water levels exceeded acceptable limits.

"We will build a good early warning system. If the dam shows sign of flooding, people around Pesanggrahan river have to know about it," Prijanto said Monday at City Hall.

Besides making the early warning system, he said he would order the mayors of South and West Jakarta to provide temporary shelters for residents whose houses may be affected by future floods.

The head of Environmental Task Force NGO, Ahmad Safrudin, said the move was too late since the Situ Gintung catastrophe had happened eight months ago.

"The city should have developed an early warning system straight after the dam burst, not at the beginning of this rainy season."

Ahmad agreed that the early warning system should involve people monitoring water levels near the dam, but suggested that these officers should be dedicated to the task and who had concern for residents living in areas downstream.

A similar system could work in other flood-prone areas such as Bukit Duri, Kampung Melayu and Cawang, East Jakarta, because these officers would be relatives of residents living in areas downstream, he said.

They would pass on the information to their family members in flood-prone areas because they care about them, Ahmad said.

"This kind of chained information is faster than the alarms on the Ciliwung River," he said.

He also regretted the slow progress of the dam reconstruction plan, which has been estimated to cost Rp 100 billion (US$10.6 million), and is expected to begin in December this year and finish by the end of next year.

"The central government and Tangerang administration should have anticipated the dam *failure* a long time ago. But months afterward we have seen nothing," Ahmad said.

The dam burst destroyed 300 houses and killed 100 people. - JP

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