No flood today

On 17 January rain falls very heavily and continuously inundating some important parts of the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta.

Many parts of the city's downtown area like the Presidential Palace, the HI Roundabout & Fountain, were inundated that President SBY's meeting with Argentinian President Mme. was postpone for a few hours.

Due to this fact, the Governor of Jakarta Joko Widodo has announced Jakarta under state of emergency for ten days until 27 January 2013 which is today. One factor that influenced Jokowi in making such decision was the weather forecast made by the Meteorology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG)  that the rain will fall heavily and continuously and shall reach the highest level on 27 January 2013.

Thank God when I woke up this morning the sun was shining very bright and it goes on the whole day until dusk.

I pray to God so that Jakarta shall not be inundated again like last week.

Photo: Courtesy of PlazaMSN

Jakarta in State of Emergency

                        Downtown Jakarta inundated by flood (The Jakarta Globe)

In the last three days the rain falls heavily in Jakarta and neighboring towns of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.

             President SBY (blue shirt) inspecting flooded Palace (The Jakarta Globe)

And today, Thursday 17 January, the heavy rainfall has caused severe flooding in most parts of the city forcing many government and business offices to close because their staffs cannot come to work.
The media reported that thousands of people in Jakarta and vicinity have been forced to leave their homes, the Presidential Palace was flooded that President SBY (the above photo) has to rescheduled his meeting with Argentinian President from morning to afternoon. The Busway transportation network has to stop its operation at 9.15 am, and trains from out of town must stop at certain train stations that are not flooded, cannot reach the city's downtown.

                                          Flooded residential area (Kompas)

According to an official of the Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysical Agency the rainfall could get worse in the next few days.

Considering the above facts, the Governor of Jakarta Joko Widodo a.k.a Jokowi, has placed the capital city under state of emergency starting today until 27 January 2013. The announcement was made after he discussed with the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare and the Head of National Disaster Mitigation Agency at his office earlier today.

Under this emergency status, the municipality government to take extraordinary actions to respond to the flooding crisis. According to Jokowi, this is a short term solution for the flood which enable the government to purchase necessary things like toilets, blankets and other needs without going through a tender.

Meanwhile, the Police and the Army has send their men to help victims of the flood. 

Aceh's Logging Moratorium Nominated for International Award

When the Flash Flood hit Pidie in the province of Aceh, on 28 February, the Governor of Aceh stated that the tragedy was caused by illegal logging i.e. cutting of forest trees, in said province.

This statement surprised me because the provincial government of Aceh has issued a Logging Moratorium i.e. stop the cutting of forest trees, since 2007.

But today I was happy when I read on The Jakarta Globe that the World Future Council  has nominated the Instruction of the Governor of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam No.5/INSTR/2007 re: Logging Moratorium as one of the nominees for the World's Best Forrest Policies.

Beside Aceh's Logging Moratorium, Forrest policies from Bhutan, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Finland, Gambia, Guatemala, Kenya, Nepal, Norway, India, Rwanda, Turkey, the United States of America and Vietnam had also been short-listed.

Three winning policies will be announced on 21 September at the United Nations headquarters in New York. 

Considering the above I felt that in spite of the obstructions in the implementation of the Logging Moratorium that caused illegal logging still exist, efforts to preserve forrest in Aceh are still considered successful.

I hope that this nomination will strengthen the will and spirit of the provincial government and law enforcement agencies in the province of Aceh to eliminate illegal logging and bring those responsible to the Court of Law.

Flash Flood in Aceh

The magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan seemed to have " robbed " our attention from the natural disaster that has struck our own land.

According to The Jakarta Post, a Flash Flood has hit the District of Tangse, Pidie Regency, Aceh, last Thursday, killing 21 people, and estimated to cause a financial loss of up to Rp 1 Trillion (US$ 114 million).
Search and rescue efforts are still being carried out while waiting for additional support from the government.

According to local official, the biggest obstacle for the search was access to villages, particularly to Rantau Panjang village, because a bridge that serves as the main access point had been cut off due to heavy damage to its construction foundation.

The possible cause of the flash flood is heavy rain fall and massive deforestation in the area.
 
In this connection I would like to express my condolence and deepest sympathy to the families of the victims.
I hope that the central and local governments would do their very best to provide all the help needed by those affected by the flash flood.

I also hope that efforts would be made to prevent the cause of such flash flood, among others by preventing massive deforestation.

Flood in Wasior, West Papua

Heavy rainfall in West Papua on Monday has flooded the town of Wasior, Teluk Wondama district, causing the death of almost 100 people and many others missing.

Please find below a related article that I have quoted from Kompas.

Various TV stations have quoted officials of environmental organizations i.e. Walhi and Greenpeace, as saying that the most possible cause of the flood is massive deforestation that has been going on for so many years in the province.

Indonesia Flood Toll Rises to Almost 100

Kamis, 7 Oktober 2010 | 14:03 WIB

 

A picture shows the aftermath of deadly flooding caused by torrential downpours in Teluk Wondama, Indonesias West Papua on October 5, 2010. At least 56 people were killed and 24 remain missing after the flash floods.

 

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The death toll from flash floods in a remote region of eastern Indonesia has climbed to at least 97 with dozens of people still missing, an official said Thursday. Rescue workers were still searching for survivors from floods which hit West Papua province’s Teluk Wondama district on Monday following torrential downpours, a rescue official said.

“At least 97 people were killed and more than 800 people were lightly and badly injured,” Papua search and rescue official Mochamad Arifin told AFP. “We are still searching for dozens of missing people,” he said.

Those killed had reportedly drowned and been swept away by the powerful waters along with uprooted trees, rocks and debris. Experts warned such events will become more common in the archipelago due to a combination of climate change, land conversion and logging, which can contribute to landslides and flash floods after monsoonal downpours.

Indonesia’s climatology agency said most parts of Indonesia had experienced torrential rains, strong winds, high waves and flooding due to extreme weather this year.

Flood in Jakarta

Citizens of Jakarta are familiar with the flood that inundated many parts of the city every 4 to 5 years.

The causes of flood can be natural as well as human carelessness. Natural because 40% of the city's land is situated lower than the sea level, so when the rain fall very much heavier than usual they would surely be inundated.

Beside that, the flood was also caused by human carelessness whereby many citizens treated their surrounding area the way they as the pleased. They throw garages/ trashes not in bins but into the rivers, sewerage, roads etc. Although there is a by-law that prohibit throwing garbage/trashes in improper places however it does not seems to work.

Further, the municipality government has been unable to maintain the city's master plan that has been issued many ago. This can be seen from the fact that many area which are supposed to be Green Area have been turned into Hotels, Shopping Malls and Office buildings and Fuel Stations. One very clear example such improper land use transformation is in the Gelora Senayan Sport Complex, South Jakarta.

In an effort to prevent more flood the municipality government is making efforts to clean the garbage/trashes that has filled the gulf of Jakarta by employing 400 fishermen.
And in order to prevent the city's coastline from abrasion, replanting of Mangrove trees is now being carried out.
Beside that, several Green Area which have been used for Fuel Stations and other buildings are now being revitalized.

For details, please click here, here, and here.

Considering the above, I felt that the flood in Jakarta is mainly caused by human mistake & carelessness, i.e. wrongful issuance of building permits and very weak law enforcement. Therefore, the best way to prevent floods in the future would be to make sure that such mistakes are not repeated again.


Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia.