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City prepares for heavier rain
Daredevils: Children use an abandoned Transjakarta bus as a platform to jump into floodwater on Jl
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span class="inline inline-center">Daredevils: Children use an abandoned Transjakarta bus as a platform to jump into floodwater on Jl. Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta, Wednesday. The weather agency has warned that heavy rains might continue through this Friday. JP/Awo
The Jakarta administration will use water pumps at full capacity in response to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency's (BMKG) forecast of heavy rainfall in the coming days.
Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama said many of the city's water pumps had failed to turn on, causing floodwater to inundate many of the city's neighborhoods over the past few days.
'We will make sure that all water pumps are on, so the water can find its way from land to sea,' Ahok told
reporters at City Hall on Wednesday after meeting with President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo at the State Palace.
Earlier this week, water pumps in Pluit Reservoir, North Jakarta, were off because of a power cut, causing some of city's main thoroughfares (such as Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in front of City Hall and Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in front of the State Palace) to flood.
State electricity operator PLN cut electricity to Pluit Reservoir to avoid accidental electrocution due to flooding, forcing the reservoir to rely on its power generator, which could only power two of nine pumps.
Ahok said that on Wednesday morning, he noticed only one of the four water pumps at the Pasar Ikan sluice gate in North Jakarta was working.
'This morning I was browsing through CCTV footage of all reservoirs and water pumps in Jakarta and I saw that in Pasar Ikan, only one of the four pumps was working. Things like this could be very risky during the rainy season,' he said.
Ahok said the sluice gate was under the authority of the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry. He said he had asked for the President's help to make sure all pumps in the sluice gate would be turned on during heavy rain.
In January, the city's Water Management Agency expects to take over operations of the Pasar Ikan sluice gate from the ministry.
BMKG meteorology data head Kukuh Rubidianto said Jakarta should anticipate heavy rainfall this weekend, which was predicted to be accompanied by rising sea levels.
'Based on our data, we expect heavy rainfall on Thursday especially in North Jakarta with an intensity of 50 millimeters. On Friday, we expect heavy rainfall throughout Greater Jakarta with an intensity of 50 to 100 mm,' Kukuh said over the phone on Wednesday.
He said that an intensity above 50 mm was considered heavy rain.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) urged the city administration to declare an 'emergency response' status, raising it from its current alert status. This would allow for the disbursement of a dedicated budget within the government and city to provide support for flood victims.
However, Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) spokesman Bambang Suryaputra said the status did not yet need to be increased, since the administration was still capable of handling floods with help from NGOs.
'We cannot simply declare emergency status each time it floods. In 2013, the city issued an alert because there were 120,000 evacuees. This year, we have less than 7,000,' Bambang told reporters at City Hall.
According to data from the BPBD, as of Wednesday afternoon, 52,298 people were affected by floods and 6,909 were displaced. The floods hit 33 districts in the capital. The most heavily affected was Pondok Pinang, South Jakarta, which was inundated with 2 m of water.
Ahok said he refused to issue an alert because he believed it was too early to do so. 'It would also be prone to corruption because we would receive trillions of rupiah in funding,' he said.
Early this week, the flood affected the Commuter Line train and Transjakarta bus routes, some of which halted operations or were redirected. Although most routes resumed normal operation on Wednesday, some Transjakarta routes were still halted, particularly Corridor 9 from Pinang Ranti in East Jakarta to Pluit in North Jakarta.
The buses could not pass Jl. S. Parman in West Jakarta as it was still flooded. Water on the street also forced Trisakti University to stop study activities this week.
