Flooding plagues East Jakarta

Sunter River overflowed its banks on Thursday, inundating several parts of East Jakarta, including areas of the Makasar and Duren Sawit districts.

“The water reached 60 to 70 centimeters at 2 a.m. and receded at 4 a.m. but rose again at 8 a.m. By midday it receded to 30 centimeters deep,” Aam, a resident of Cipinang Melayu in the Makasar district,
said.

Cipinang Melayu subdistrict head Syaiful Hayat said the waters had started to recede around 5 a.m. and no one had to evacuate. Syaiful said that the narrowing of the river had caused the floods.

The local administration has plans to normalize the river, Syaiful said, and would advise 100 families living on the river’s banks about the plan.

“If the river had been normalized, we wouldn’t have been flooded anymore,” Syaiful said.

Meanwhile, community units RW 4 and RW 7 in Pondok Bambu, Duran Sawit, were inundated on Wednesday evening by a faulty flood gate, although the waters receded by Thursday morning, kompas.com reported.