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From direct warnings to restoring embankments, cities beef up for potential floods
In anticipation of possible floods following a warning about heavy downpours in Greater Jakarta until Jan. 12, city administrations in Greater Jakarta area have been preparing measures, from directly warning residents to fixing embankments.
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Clouds in Jakarta on Wednesday. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) predicts that extreme rainfall will occur in various regions of Indonesia from Jan. 5 to 15. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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ollowing the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency's (BMKG) warning of possible heavy downpours occurring until Sunday across Greater Jakarta, city administrations have been taking measures to mitigate potential floods.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan claimed the city administration had evaluated flood response standard operating procedures after big floods last week that claimed 16 lives and displaced thousands throughout the capital alone.
“A new measure would be to directly warn residents about floods instead of through the neighborhood unit, community unit and subdistrict officials. [Officers] would go around with a loudspeaker and siren,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
He went on to say the administration had prepared posts at the subdistrict level to provide an immediate response in the event of flooding.
Anies previously claimed that 478 pumps -- both static and mobile -- across 176 locations, in addition to 122 mobile pumps, managed by the administration functioned well, but at the same time acknowledged that the existing capacity of pumps could not cope with the extreme rainfall intensity.
During the floods that occurred on the first day of 2020, Jakarta Water Resources Management Agency head Juaini Yusuf admitted that pumps at 10 locations were forced to turn off in order to prevent property damage as the height of the floodwater exceeded the pump.
“We carried out an audit which concluded the pumps did not function because they had sunk,” Anies said. “We are currently fixing those.”
