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Bekasi residents trapped in homes as river bursts banks
When the rains came: Water inundates a street in the Gunung Sahari area of Central Jakarta on Thursday
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span class="inline inline-center">When the rains came: Water inundates a street in the Gunung Sahari area of Central Jakarta on Thursday. Parts of the city were submerged on Thursday after heavy rain fell the night before.(JP/Jerry Adiguna)
Residents of Bekasi, West Java, had difficulty going about their daily activities on Thursday morning after the Bekasi River burst its banks inundating several neighborhoods following an eight-hour downpour in the city.
Suriaman Moerdani Pandjaitan, a resident of Jati Bening, was unable to get to work as the first floor of his house was flooded from 5 a.m. until 1 p.m.
He initially thought that the flood was caused by the excessive rain, which poured on the city from 1 a.m. until 8 a.m. However, he later learned that the flooding, up to 3 meters in parts, was the result of a burst embankment.
“I was barely able to sleep once the rain began to pour. At 5 a.m., my mother told me that the water was coming inside my house,” Suriaman told The Jakarta Post.
“We immediately picked up important belongings, including our dogs, and rushed up to the second floor,” he added.
He called on the Bekasi administration to immediately fix the embankment in anticipation of further floods amid the heavy rains that have hit in the city in recent days.
Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi said that he had ordered his officials to open a sluice gate on Jl. Mayor Hasibuan in South Bekasi to ease the flooding in the inundated areas.
He said details regarding the management of the embankment were actually the responsibility of the directorate general of water management at the public housing and public works ministry.
However, he added, he had to make a quick decision to prevent more severe flooding.
He wanted the Bogor administration to also keep him informed about water levels in upstream areas so Bekasi could decide whether to open or close the sluice gates.
“We want to manage the embankment with other officials as water from Bogor will reach Bekasi within six hours via the Cikeas and Cileungsi rivers,” Rahmat said as quoted by wartakotalive.com, adding that Thursday’s flooding was mostly caused by excess water from Bogor, rather than the local rain.
Burst dams and river banks are a frequent problem in Greater Jakarta. In 2013, a high volume of water caused the Ciliwung River broke its banks at Jl. Latuharhary following heavy downpours. The incident led to flooding in several major locations in the capital, including Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta, killing two people.
On March 27, 2009, the Situ Gintung Dam in South Tangerang, Banten, burst, sending a huge volume of water onto nearby neighborhoods, killing at least 99 people.
After this tragedy, Situ Gintung was left empty to prevent a recurrence.
Rains have poured over Greater Jakarta in the past few days causing incidents in several areas.
In Tangerang, Banten, a section of the roof in the Aeon Mall collapsed under the weight of water on Wednesday evening, injuring dozens of shoppers.
In South Jakarta, two teenagers, identified as Anggi, 14, and Siswanto, 17, were swept away by the heavily swollen Krukut River on Thursday morning. As of Thursday evening, the police and search and rescue (SAR) team were still searching for the youths.
Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) chief Andi Eka Sakya said that the heavy rain during Wednesday evening and Thursday morning was a result of a confluence of winds from southern Sumatra and western Java, which resulted in massive rain clouds forming.
He added that heavy rain was likely to continue in Greater Jakarta until Sunday.
