AsianScientist (Jan. 21, 2013) – By Brigitte Leoni – Heavy rains caused massive flooding in Jakarta on Thursday bringing the city to a halt with many government offices and businesses forced to close because employees could not get to work.
At least 20,000 people were forced from their homes and 11 people are reported to have lost their lives in Indonesia’s capital.
Authorities have now declared a state of emergency until January 27 warning that rains will worsen in the next few days.
Jakarta like many other big cities in Asia is very vulnerable to flooding as it sits in a low-lying area with 13 rivers that overflow periodically. About 40 percent of Jakarta’s land area is below sea level.
“Days of heavy downpours caused the rivers to overflow and triggered floods up to three meters,” National Disaster Management Center (NDMC) Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, adding that rivers in Jakarta had a low capacity to contain the monsoon rains. “It’s serious because this is the capital of Indonesia and flooding can affect the economy locally and nationally” he stated.
Thanks to good early warning systems currently in place, people were warned and evacuated in time, Nugroho said. The city, however, was unable to absorb the huge quantity of water that inundated the capital in a couple of hours, he said.
“What happened yesterday in Jakarta, happened in 2011 in Bangkok and last year in Manila and Beijing; governments and the private sector must work together and invest urgently in water and waste management systems that can cope with heavy and sudden floods,” said Jerry Velasquez, who heads UNISDR’s Asia Pacific Office.
According to the Indonesian association of retail businesses, retailers are said to have already lost about 420 billion rupiah (US$43 million) after the first day of flooding,
The city’s main airport is still open but many roads leading to it are reportedly blocked. Flooding was even reported at the presidential palace. Local news reports showed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, UNISDR’s Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction, walking outside the Presidential Palace with pants rolled up to inspect flooding, which in some areas was waist-high.
Jakarta’s government says flooding in the city is already the worst on record and the peak has not been reached yet. The 2007 floods caused nearly US$500 million of damage in Jakarta alone and forced 600,000 people to leave their homes.
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Source: UNISDR; Photo: nSeika/Flickr/CC.
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