E. Jakarta raises alert on possible flooding

JAKARTA: Several temporary shelters for residents of Kampung Melayu and Bidaracina in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, are gearing up to anticipate flooding following the swelling of the city's rivers Wednesday.

Jatinegara district head Andriansyah said that his office had prepared tents, rubber dinghies and equipment to be used for evacuation.

"Now, our monitoring post in Bidaracina keeps updating information from the monitoring post at the Katulampa sluice gate in Bogor, West Java round the clock," Andriyansyah told vivanews.com.

Heavy downpour in Bogor had led the water level at Manggarai sluice in South Jakarta to rise up to 710 centimeters deep from 690 centimeters.

The administration will raise the alertness status to the first alert to anticipate possible flood should the water level exceed 950 centimeters.

Flood has become annual occurrence in the city, which has 13 rivers snaking through its parts buffeted by 40 percent of the city's area below sea level. - JP