BANGKOK, 12 December 2011 (IRIN) – Indonesia’s disaster management officials warn severe flooding may hit the capital Jakarta this rainy season, as more than 26,000 health, public works and other emergency personnel mobilize nationwide in a larger-than-usual preparedness effort.

Heavy rainfall is predicted in January and February during the peak of the wet season, according to the country’s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG).

Several of Jakarta’s 40 sub-districts are expected to get more rainfall than usual, said Edy Junaidi of the Jakarta Provincial Agency for Disaster Management. Torrential rainfall may bring 400mm of rainfall per hour, some four times the average.

“There are no indications that flooding will be worse than 2007,” Junaidi told IRIN. “But it doesn’t mean we’re not anticipating.”

In February 2007 flooding, which lasted about 22 days, killed 57 people and forced 422,300 to leave their homes, of which 1,500 were destroyed. Total damage was estimated at nearly US$695 million, according to the UN. 

One flood-prone community in south Jakarta’s Pondok Labu area was already inundated with more than 2m of water in late October.

Stalled dredging

Rubbish and debris in waterways hamper water flow during heavy rain, emergency workers said.

New construction in this province of about 10 million has altered the natural course of waterways, too, as urban settlements formed haphazardly along riverbanks.

Emergency officials are “pretty well geared up this time around” to respond to severe flooding, said Phillip Charlesworth, head of delegation for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Jakarta.

But Charlesworth said the stalled World Bank-funded multimillion dollar project, known as the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative, could have better prepared the city.

“The opportunity to do this work before the wet season has been lost,” he said.

Scheduled to begin three years ago, local media quoted city officials as saying the project is due to start in March 2012.

The capital’s principal waterways – 13 rivers and two flood canals – do not have the capacity to drain water quickly enough during heavy downpours, National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told local media.

Meanwhile, other recent efforts to bolster Jakarta’s flood infrastructure include dredging rivers, cleaning 144 waterways, heightening tidal barriers in north Jakarta, building 26 reservoirs and installing pumps in 11 areas, Junaidi said.

Government officials have also distributed sandbags to people living in sub-districts susceptible to flooding, and 310 rubber boats and 537 mobile pumps are on hand.

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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]