Indonesia's Capital City Jakarta Plagued by Big Flood in February 2016?
The Provincial Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Jakarta predicts that Indonesia's capital city may be plagued by a big flood in February 2016. The city has been seeing more rainfall in recent weeks and rainfall is expected to intensify and to reach its peak in February according to both the BPBD and the Indonesian Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics (BMKG). In late January and February rainfall may be more than 100 millimeter per day but there are also estimates that rainfall can rise up to 380 millimeters in one day. This could cause a major flood.
In recent years it has been a normal phenomenon that parts of Jakarta are flooded in January and February when the rainy season hits it peak. Each year this leads to a few dozens of casualties and tens of thousands of people being dispatched from their homes. Apart from rainfall in Jakarta, heavy rainfall in the city of Bogor and the nearby located Puncak Pas area also cause problems as water is carried downstream on the Ciliwung River to Jakarta causing floods in the capital city.
The western, northern and eastern parts of Jakarta are most vulnerable to flooding. Denny Wahyu, official at BPBD Jakarta, stated that over the past three years there has been an improvement in duration of the floods in these areas. Whereas three years ago, floods remained present for a week, now it takes six days for the floods to disappear as the city's waterways are cleaned more regularly. In cooperation with the Jakarta police force there will be more than 20,000 people on standby to combat the floods in the capital city at the start of 2016.
The Ciliwung river, a 119 kilometers-long river in the western region of Java (stretching from Bogor to Jakarta), is the main source of the floods. This heavily polluted river (mainly its Jakarta sections) due to waste being thrown into the river (reducing the surface area of the river) - and indicating people's low awareness of water maintenance and ecological issues - causes the floods. Moreover, with many of the original forests converted into settlements around the Puncak area, floods become worse each year.
Bambang Musyawardana, mayor of East Jakarta, said he hopes that the installation of sheet piles and dikes along the Ciliwung river will avert the recurring of flooding in East Jakarta in the peak of the rainy season early next year. However, as not all works have been completed several parts of East Jakarta may still be plagued by floods. His district also prepared four pumps to combat floods.