City to Fix Drainage

The Jakarta Globe, Ambang Priyonggo, January 31, 2009

The Jakarta administration has allocated Rp 41 billion ($3.6 million) to improve the city’s drainage system this year, Governor Fauzi Bowo said on Friday.

Fauzi said the poor drainage system had already contributed to severe flooding in many areas of the city this year, and that the city needed to allocate special funding in its 2009 budget to plan for drainage projects.

However, Fauzi declined to give any details regarding the additional spending, only adding that the project would be the city’s first priority this year. “We are going to work on it,” he said.

In other efforts to mitigate the flood danger, the city plans to drill five million biopores across the city in coming years. Biopores are small holes that act as organic waste catchments, increasing the absorption of groundwater.

City Secretary Muhayat said that there were currently only about 450 biopores within the city’s five muncipalities, but that efforts were underway to change that. “We expect that there will be one million biopores in each municipality,” he said, while supervising the drilling of 1,000 biopores on the grounds of the National Monument park on Friday.

Muhayat said he would urge district and subdistrict heads to intensify biopore drilling efforts in their areas by enlisting the help of local residents. Biopores, he said, could be drilled in private yards as well as local parks to help cope with rainy season flooding.

Meanwhile, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, or BMG, has warned Jakarta residents of heavy rains potentially leading to floods over the next three days.

“We warn Jakarta residents to be aware of the heavy downpours and the likelihood of more flooding in some areas of the city,” BMG spokesman Achmad Zakir Zamawi said.

Achmad added that heavy rain was predicted for Bogor and Depok, which might cause the Ciliwung River to overflow. The BMG has predicted thunderstorms for much of February.