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Refugees wait in shelters for swollen Jakarta rivers to recede
Rest ashore: Refugees rest in a tent in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, on Saturday
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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Rest ashore: Refugees rest in a tent in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, on Saturday. More than 1,700 residents were evacuated from Kampung Pulo after floods inundated their houses following downpours in Bogor, south of the city. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
Thousands of residents in East and South Jakarta have been displaced from their homes after floodwaters from the overflowing Ciliwung River submerged parts of their neighborhood on the weekend.
“Since late Saturday we have recorded 8,727 refugees in dozens of temporary shelters in East and South Jakarta,” Jakarta Social Services Agency chief Budihardjo said in a text message to The Jakarta Post on Sunday. “Some residents have returned to their homes but we expect the number of refugees may increase.”
To support the refugees, Budihardjo said his agency had worked with Social Services Ministry and the Indonesian Red Cross to provide basic needs, such as shelter, food, baby’s milk and dry clothing.
“We also have 36 public kitchens operating for the refugees,” he said.
On Friday night the administration had warned residents of areas near rivers of the possibility of floods after water levels at the Katulampa water gate in Bogor, West Java, reached 250 centimeters earlier in the day, more than enough to ring initial warning bells.
As predicted, from early on Saturday water from the Ciliwung River began to inundate areas including Rawa Jati and Pengadegan in South Jakarta, and Kampung Melayu and Jati Pinggir in East Jakarta.
In Bogor, 716 houses and 53 public facilities were damaged after floods hit five subdistricts in the city, Antara news agency reported.
At least two people in Bogor and Jakarta died in the incident.
Jakarta Health Agency has also deployed officers to assist flood refugees. “We have been working to make sure each temporary shelter has at least one doctor, nurse, pharmacist and ambulance,” agency head Dien Emawati told tempointeraktif.com.
Residents were prone to diseases including dengue fever and diarrhea during floods, she said.
If the agency’s doctors failed to treat patients in shelters, Dien said the agency had asked them to immediately send them to one of 17 hospitals appointed by the city administration to provide free treatment for flood victims.
Floods occur every rainy season in Jakarta, usually hitting the city in January and February.
The Jakarta crisis center has identified 99 flood-prone areas in the city. In West Jakarta, 33 areas were identified, while North Jakarta had 26, East Jakarta 22, South Jakarta 10 and Central Jakarta 8.
To prevent floods, the city has employed several measures, including working to complete the construction of its East Canal Flood project. Once complete, the Rp 4.9 trillion (US$524.3 million) project will control six major rivers in the city, including the Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jatikramat, Cakung and Blencong rivers, and will help reduce flooding across the 270-square-kilometer flood-prone area of eastern and northern Jakarta.
Pitoyo Subandrio, the head of the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau at the Public Works Ministry (also the director of the East Canal Flood project), however, was optimistic that the canal would help ease flood problems in the city.
“Before the canal was functional, the same amount of rain water on Saturday would have inundated many flood-prone areas in the city for at least three days,” he said.
“But now, most areas saw floods that only lasted between 12 and 14 hours.”
