New machine aims to end India's sewer death shame

Yahoo – AFP, 19 November 2018

World Toilet Day is held on November 19 each year and is a campaign to raise
awareness of issues surrounding health and sanitation

Hundreds of "manual scavengers" die each year cleaning out sewers in cities across India but a machine unveiled for Monday's World Toilet Day could help to end that tragic record.

Thousands of mostly low-caste Indians are employed in one of the world's dirtiest jobs unclogging human waste from underground pipes.

More than 1,300 have died, mainly suffocated, in the past three years, according to the Sulabh International charity.

The men are called "manual scavengers" because they mainly scrape the waste with their bare hands without any protective gear or masks.

The machine launched by Sulabh injects high pressure water into the tunnels and tanks and then collects the waste with a mechanical bucket operated from ground level.

A remote control inspection camera generates high-resolution images of the sewer system.

Bindeshwar Pathak, the Sulabh International founder, said that forcing humans into the sewers was "demeaning".

"We hear so often the tragic news about sewer workers losing their lives," he said.

"This machine can safely clean the waste matter and it will gradually make manual scavenging redundant.

"With this machine we hope no person will die in the sewers any more."

Indian lawmakers have passed several laws aiming to stamp out the age-old practice of manual scavenging, the latest in 2013. But many scavengers are still used through subcontractors.

In rural areas, women "scavengers" clean out primitive non-flush toilets with basic tools, although the practice is now on the wane.

Pathak also unveiled a giant Indian-style toilet pot to raise awareness about sanitation in a country where some 150 million people do not have home toilets.

Strong public health message on UN World Toilet Day

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been leading calls for improved sanitation on World Toilet Day. Billions still suffer from a lack of proper toilets and the accompanying, heightened risk of serious illness.

Deutsche Welle, 19 Nov 2015

The United Nations says 2.4 billion people around the world don't have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate out in the open. The world's population is currently just under 7.5 billion.

The UN launched World Toilet Day (19.11.2015) with a strong public health message. Poor sanitation, it said, increases the risk of illness and malnutrition, especially for children.

The UN also said that women and girls in particular need safe, clean facilities.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that one in three women around the world had no access to safe toilets. "As a result they face disease, shame and potential violence when they seek a place to defecate."

In Ghana's Northern region, it's estimated that seven out of ten people - men, women and children - have no access to toilet facilities, neither in their home nor in public spaces.

But some people who have access to public toilets prefer the bush. "Inside the toilet it is always hot, it is better to consider the forest. Also they don't keep them clean. That's the main reason why I won't use a public toilet," one man in Tamale told DW.

DW visited a public toilet in Tamale where people pay a small gratuity. It was in a filthy condition.

"Toilets can't always be cleaned. Sometimes the caretaker will have additional work somewhere else so he has no time to keep things clean," the toilet attendant said.

Ban Ki-moon:'We have a moral
imperative to end open defecation'

An estimated 18,000 Ghanaians, including 5,000 children under the age of five, die every year from ailments related to poor sanitation.

Convention and customs?

The UN Millennium Development Goals, which are supposed to be achieved this year, call for the halving of the proportion of the population without access to basic sanitation.

Ban said that by many accounts, this will be "the most-missed target."

In 2013, the UN launched a campaign to end defecation in the open by 2025. In sub-Sharan Africa, 36 percent of the population were not using toilets in 1990. Twenty-five years later that figure now stands at 25 percent.

In a World Toilet Day press release, the UN says open defecation is deeply rooted in poverty, but has also been linked to convention and customs in some countries and societies. It represents some of the only times other than worship where women from rigid family circumstances may meet one another.

Maxwell Suuk in Tamale contributed to this report.

Bill Gates drinks cup of water that used to be human poop (VIDEO)

RT.com, January 07, 2015

Screenshot from YouTube user thegatesnotes

Billionaire activist Bill Gates is backing an innovation in water filtration that turns human poop into drinking water. The OmniProcessor could bring clean water to millions of people and help solve the problem of debilitating diseases.

The OmniProcessor, designed and built by Seattle engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy, burns human waste to produce electricity and water. The processor powers itself through the use of a steam engine and does not emit an odor. The machine could handle 14 tons of waste from 100,000 people, producing up to 86,000 liters of drinkable water a day, and net 250 kw of electricity.

At a demonstration of the OmniProcessor shown on GatesNotes, a smiling Bill Gates drank water from the machine, which was previously untreated sewage.

“It’s water,” said Gates in the video.

He wrote on his blog: "The water tasted as good as any I’ve had out of a bottle. And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It’s that safe."

Gates said that 2.5 billion people – or 40 percent of the global population – have no access to safe sanitation, and many people use facilities that do not safely dispose of human waste. About 1.5 million children die every year from contaminated food and water, and half of all patients in hospitals are there because of problems with water and sanitation. It is extremely costly to try and create sewage infrastructure in cities and towns that already exist, so Gates thinks the low cost water treatment machine could be revolutionary.

Screenshot from YouTube user thegatesnotes

“If you can get thousands of these things out there, then you’ve ensured the people really will grow up in a healthy way,” Gates told Wired. “They’ll live much higher quality lives. You will save a lot of lives. And you’ll have local entrepreneurs who are maintaining these things.”

The OmniProcessor, which costs $1.5 million, will undergo a pilot launch in Dakar, Senegal later this year.

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"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

Why India needs hi-tech bio toilets to stop 620 million people defecating in the open

More than 50 percent of India's population defecates in the open - due to widespread poor sanitation. The government wants to tackle the problem by building 100,000 bio-digester toilets.

Deutsche Welle, 23 June 2014

India's sanitation statistics stink.

But in the Indian capital, a unique experiment to set up hi-tech bio-digester toilets promises to change the lives of thousands of residents who use open fields for their morning ablutions.

The World Health Organization - and figures from India's own census - suggest the number of people, who are forced to defecate in the open, is as high as 620 million.

That's more than half the population.

Small wonder, then, that during its New Delhi trial the bio-toilet has received such ecstatic praise.

Since it was installed outside a public hospital at the start of June, the bio-toilet has seen a steady stream of users.

Many residents, such as Ram Yadav, a daily wage laborer, are happy with the venture.

"We now have the privacy to use a toilet and do not have to wander into open spaces. There is also running water," says Yadav.

More than basic sanitation

But it's not just about meeting the country's basic sanitation needs and health standards. It is also about public safety.

The bio-digester toilet is about more than health and sanitation - it's about safety too

The lack of toilets in India has meant that women are often left in dangerous situations. Alone the act of having to relieve yourself at night can be dangerous - if you are a woman and have to walk out into open fields in the rural hinterlands.

"This is excellent and very helpful. There should be more of these toilets," says Gita Devi, a New Delhi homemaker.

Renowned architect Raj Rewal, better known for designing iconic exhibition pavilions and structures such as the Parliament library, has partnered in this ambitious project.

"I felt that a large number of people, particularly those living in slums, go and defecate in the open. This is a very serious problem - mainly for the 2.5 million women in the city who have no facility to go to toilets in the morning," Rewal says.

This prototype uses aluminium sandwiched honeycomb panels, with stainless steel veneering for durability. The eco-friendly toilet can be set up anywhere - even where there are no sewer lines.

High altitude innovation

A similar system has been tested successfully at high altitude by army personnel at the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir.

And India's Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) plans to help roll out the bio-toilet program across the country.

"We developed a technology which includes a consortium of psychrophilic bacteria, which was brought from Antarctica, cultured in the laboratory, and which can degrade fecal matter into water, carbon dioxide and methane," says Dr William Selvamurthy, a former scientist at the DRDO. "This is a very, very innovative technology."

Selvamurthy says the bio-toilet has no geographical or climate limitations, and can be installed without the need for large sewerage networks.

If mass-produced, a single unit will cost between 400 to 700 euros

Some have undergone design modifications. For example, to avoid the toilets getting clogged at railway stations, where people might use them to dispose of non-biodegradable plastics, like bottles, a special lid has been constructed.

"The Indian railways have adopted this technology and the existing coaches are being retro-fitted. It will also go to other civilian sectors in a very horizontal spread to a very large cross-section of our society," Selvamurthy says.

Total Sanitation Mission 2020

Architect Raj Rewal hopes the toilets will be set up across the country soon.

"It can go to any city, any small town, and hopefully to small villages if we work hard on the design and economics of the toilets," says Rewal.

The Indian government is keen to fast-track the scheme. Open defecation has serious health implications and is a big economic burden on the country.

Only one state in India, Sikkim, is free of open defecation. Under its Total Sanitation Mission, the government aims to eliminate the problem of open defecation by 2022.

Flood hit Jakarta areas

The Jakarta Post, Sat, 02/13/2010 8:00 AM, Jakarta

Annual flood: People living on the bank of Ciliwung River, Bukit Duri Utara, Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta evacuate their belongings on Saturday after floodwaters from the river inundate their houses.

Slide show: Annual flood

Water from the overflowing Ciliwung River has inundates a number of areas in South and East Jakarta since early in the morning on Saturday.

News portal kompas.com has reported that residential areas in Bidaracina, South Jakarta and Kampung Pulo, Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta have been flooded.

Most of the residents in the area have taken refuge following flood warning by the city administration earlier on Friday night.

The administration had warned residents living along certain river banks in the city to be alert about the level of water in Katulampa water gate in Bogor, West Java, which reached 250 centimeters at 6 a.m. on Friday. It was classified as the first warning level.

The city's Public Works Agency said that flood might hit areas in Rawajati, Kalibata, Pengadegan, Kebon Baru and Bidaracina in South Jakarta and Kampung Melayu, Bukit Duri and Jati Pinggir in East Jakarta.

Separately, Jakarta Social Affairs Agency said it has prepared 10,000 food packages for the refugees. The agency also said it had set up temporary tents and two medical posts, along with 10 ambulances.

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Our beloved rivers of waste

Alexandra Hansen, Contributor The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 02/09/2010 11:40 AM

Home by the river: Residents perform various house chores in their homes located along the Ciliwung River in Jakarta. Millions of people rely on the river for their daily water needs. JP/Ricky Yudhistira

Standing on the bank on one of Jakarta’s many rivers, the experience is much the same across the board. Nothing you would hope for in a river is present in the city’s 13 main canals.

Clear water, the peaceful babble, trees and native flora lining the bed, native wildlife in and around the water and children paddling amongst the leaves have all been replaced by rubbish, disease-causing bacteria and pollution.

Standing on the edge of any of Jakarta’s canals is saddening; what once would have been a beautiful and serene place, is now a bed of pollution and the cause of illnesses such as typhoid, dysentery, cholera, E.coli-poisoning and amoebiasis.

So what has caused the rivers to become so polluted, and the water so unusable?

We have.

Many factors lead to water pollution of this extent, one of the main ones being sewage.

The water canals in Jakarta are largely used to flush human sewage, increasing the level of E.coli in the water, thus making it unfit for human consumption.

The nitrates and phosphates found in sewage, and in fertilizers, also lead to an over-stimulation in the growth of aquatic plants such as algae. An excess of algae clogs up the waterways, uses up dissolved oxygen as it decomposes, and blocks light to deeper waters. This in turn is very harmful to aquatic organisms such as fish, as it inhibits their respiratory ability.

Another factor contributing to water pollution is the large amount of rubbish and waste deposited into the river by inhabitants of the riverside.

All of the above are known as municipal pollution, pollution caused by homes and commercial establishments.

Add to those factors industrial pollution. Large amounts of industrial waste are deposited into the river system every day, allowing hazardous substances to flow freely in our precious water.

Garbage river: Two workers comb through garbage in the Ciliwung River. The piles of garbage found in the river contribute to the city’s annual flood problem. JP/P.J. Leo

Last, but not least, agriculture plays a significant role in polluting rivers. The erosion caused by crops devastates the river systems, and is the leading cause of water pollution in countries such as the US.

Chandra Samekto, a project officer for the Citarum River, says the problems are widespread and caused by many different factors.

“For the Citarum River especially, the problem is quite serious. This river is integral to Jakarta’s water supply and is a very strategic source to all of West Java.”

One of the main tasks of the Citarum project is to identify why the condition of the river is degrading, and what can be done to improve the situation.

“We have spent a lot of time researching and identifying the problems in the Citarum River, and have discovered that each segment has a different problem. For example, upstream, the problems are caused by industry. Adjacent to the river is a coal treatment plant, and the waste from materials used to treat the coal is dumped into the river. In the middle section of the river however, the main problem has to do with people’s sanitation habits. They dump waste and garbage, which is detrimental to the water quality.”

When asked whether the situation has improved recently, Samekto says the results are not promising.

“We definitely think the situation is getting worse.”

He adds it is very important we address the problem, and put more effort into improving the quality of the rivers, and in turn, the water quality in Indonesia, as the quality of the water could be a limiting factor to Indonesia’s economic development.

Double work: A woman washes clothes while taking care of her child on a wooden pontoon along the Ciliwung River. JP/P.J. Leo

“It is important that we as a society recognize the problem, and realize it is worsening, as perhaps this way people will make an effort to improve it.”

The Citarum River project has up to 80 plans in motion to improve the river, with an estimated cost of Rp 45 trillion (US$4.8 billion).

Plans include new water treatment facilities, water site management strategies, upstream conditioning and septic tanks.

Also included in their plans is System Rice Intensification (SRI), a program aimed at using less water when cultivating rice crops, for the same or better yield of crop.

In conjunction with these plans, it is important people do their bit in caring for their rivers and water canals.

“People do care,” says Samekto.

“But they need to collaborate with us, and replicate our actions. We hope to get support from everyone, and become a movement of sorts. If everyone knows the issues involved, if people realize the problem, we can help them change their behavior, and change [the behavior of] companies.

“The only way to do this is by creating awareness, by educating people. For example, a simple step to take is to stop littering in the rivers, dispose of your rubbish carefully,” he says.

The message is simple, and is known the world over, yet it seems somehow more difficult in practice.

“Yes, it is easy to see, but it will take more time to change people’s behavior.”

Four workers found dead in Jakarta sewer

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 12/22/2009 3:49 PM

Four men working to clean part of a sewer in Kampung Melayu in East Jakarta were found dead on Tuesday. Authorities suspect the men were trapped by water inside the sewer and suffocated.

“They died inside the sewer,” Timur Munadi, chief of East Jakarta Fire Agency, told reporters as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Timur said there were five workers in the group, one of them survived.

The men began cleaning the 1.5-meter diameter sewer pipe around 9 a.m. and were found dead at 10:30 a.m. inside the sewer in Kali Baru, Gunung Antang.

The bodies were evacuated in the afternoon and have been taken to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital for autopsy

Sewage treatment in the pipeline

The Jakarta Post, JAKARTA | Wed, 03/25/2009 10:59 AM

The administration is planning to build a sewage treatment network for the city, and more waste treatment facilities, the governor said on Tuesday.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said the administration had developed a plan that would adopt a system currently being used in the Setiabudi area near Jl. HR Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, with a network of ducts and a sewage treatment system dam.

Fauzi said the dam was part of the Kuningan area sewage network. It was a pilot project that should have been developed further, but funding had been insufficient at the time of its construction.

“Our cash flow had not been that strong since we were allocating funding to other public services,” Fauzi said.

“We are considering dividing the network into separate clusters,” he said. Each cluster would have its own treatment plant.

“We mulled over this idea some years ago, and there was a plan from Malaysia that used water tanks. But this is not that simple. Those water tanks need to be supported by a network of ducts.”

Fauzi said the administration planned to build open ducts.

“And while this is not really an extraordinary system, the cost is huge.

“It costs more to remove sewage than it does to supply drinking water. I think it will cost more than Rp 1 trillion. We need investors.”

Fauzi said the administration also planned to charge residents for the use of the system. The charge would be billed along with tap water fees.

Fauzi said this billing system was common in developed countries.

“If bills are separated, the public will not want to pay for the removal of sewage,” he said.

The latest data shows that only 3 percent of Jakarta’s population is connected to proper sewage facilities.

The capital has only one sewage treatment plant in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, and waste treatment facilities in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta, and Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta.

Public Works Ministry data shows that in 2008 there were 1,460,079 households (63.4 percent of those in Greater Jakarta), which disposed of their sewage waste into closed gutters; 784,568 households or 34 percent dumped their waste into open gutters; and 56,139 households flushed their waste directly into the ground or into rivers.

Most gutters, however, are not connected to sewage treatment plants, but to waterways, thus causing massive pollution problems in the city’s 13 major rivers.

Household waste from toilets, ammonia, BOD (biological oxygen demand) and COD (chemical oxygen demand), have been flushed into these rivers.

A 2008 academic study of an environment ministry plan to control the contamination of the Ciliwung river revealed levels of BOD, COD, and coli bacteria in the Ciliwung river surpassed contamination thresholds, as revealed by Kompas newspaper. (iwp)

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Developers start building water treatment plants

Prodita Sabarini, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Thu, 02/26/2009 11:31 AM 

 

With only 3 percent of Jakarta and its surrounding areas connected to a sewerage system, sewage treatment plants are a rarity.

 

This one is located in Lippo Village, a privately developed residential and business complex covering 3,600 hectares. It processes sewage from around 10,000 families living in the area. 

 

While the city administration has not been able to provide adequate waterworks infrastructure for the city – having only a sewage treatment plant in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, and waste treatment facilities in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta, and Duri Kosambi, West Jakarta – the private sector (i.e. real estate de-velopers) is investing in sanitation systems.

 

 Rare view: An officer inspects a sewage treatment plant at Lippo Village in Tangerang, Banten. A number of developers have equipped their housing estates with modern sewage treatment plant. JP/Prodita Sabarini

Light brown water flowed rapidly at a privately owned sewage system plant in Tangerang. A slightly foul odor lingered from the plant, but the smell was better than what comes out of the city’s putrid gutters.

 

The latest move to build a sani-tation system was in 2002, when the city signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth US$5.3 billion with an Australian company to develop a proper sanitation system.

 

Under the agreement, the company was to construct a deep tunnel sewerage system to treat all liquid waste in the capital.

 

However, there has been no follow-up to the agreement until recently, apparently due to financial constraints.

 

Poor sanitation leads to water pollution in the city’s rivers.

 

The city environmental agency has repeatedly reported the presence of E. coli bacteria in all of the 13 rivers it regularly monitors throughout the city.

 

The two tap water operators in Jakarta – PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ) which currently bear the name PT Aetra Air Jakarta – have frequently complained about the quality of the water they must treat to turn into potable water.

 

Private companies that can afford to invest in sanitation systems at their estates said their reasons were not only environmental but also economical.

 

Furthermore, developers are obliged to provide sanitation systems at their project sites under a 2005 gubernatorial decree on waste water treatment. 

 

Cornelia Retno, the water and sanitation manager of Lippo Karawaci, the developer of Lippo Village, said the initial investment for the waterworks system in the early 1990s reached billions of rupiah.

 

“It is profitable in the long term,” she said.

 

She said that because of the infrastructure, the value of property at Lippo Village continued to rise at an average of 20 percent each year.

 

The largest integrated property developer also developed Lippo Cikarang and Royal Serpong Village. It launched Kemang Village, an integrated city project in South Jakarta worth US$880 million in late 2007, and is building the $1.2 billion St. Moritz Penthouses and Residences in the Puri Indah Central Business District.

 

In Lippo Village, the houses are connected to sewage pipes, which transport wastewater to a sewage treatment plant. The plant processes 130 liters of waste per second. The water is then stored in basins or used to water plants.

 

The town also has a water treatment plant, which process tap water from the local water company into potable drinking water.

 

Retno said the company was currently studying the possibility of using the basin as a water source.

 

Another property giant Agung Podomoro Group also invests in sanitation system. The company, which managed to survive the 1997 Asian financial crisis, is embarking on a massive project called Podomoro City in West Jakarta. Occupying a 21-hectare block, the project will consist of 15 apartment towers, malls and office areas.

 

CEO of Agung Podomoro group Handaka Santosa said there would be sewage treatment plants and a water treatment plant at Podomoro City.

 

“It is profitable. Water is expensive. So rather than throwing it away, we will reuse it,” he said.

Handaka, however, said the government should provide the city with a proper sanitation system. Educating the public about keeping the rivers clean is also important, he said.

 

The small river behind Senayan City Mall in South Jakarta is another project of Agung Podomoro Group.

 

“At first I put a metal fork to trap the flowing garbage in the river.

 

The result was three trucks full of garbage every day. I decided to take the fork out as it was costly,” he said.

 

At the site, a resident threw a bucket of rubbish into the river.

 

“You saw that with your own eyes, didn’t you?” he said.

 

“Education, it’s important.”

'Clogged sewerage' to blame for flooding

Agnes Winarti and Triwik Kurniasari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 01/14/2009 8:19 AM 

It now takes less than an hour of heavy downpour to turn some of Jakarta's streets into impassable waterways and to bring traffic to a grinding halt.

An official at the Jakarta Public Works Agency said Tuesday the city's clogged sewerage and waterways were the major cause of traffic in the city on Tuesday when monsoon rain brought Jakarta's roads to a virtual standstill. 

“The garbage causes both micro- and macro-drainage systems in the city to only be able to perform at 50 to 70 percent of their capacities,”  head of the agency Budi Widiantoro said. 

He clarified that micro drains were 1- to 5-meter-diameter drainage pipes, and that macro drains were the city's major rivers. 

He said because of the excess of garbage in the city's sewerage, water tended to overflow onto the streets in heavy rain. He said even without the blockages, the city's sewerage was inadequate to absorb protracted heavy rainfall. 

It has proven incapable of absorbing the monsoon rain that has pounded the city over the last two days. 

“The [city] only has the capacity to absorb a maximum of 50 millimeters of rainfall, and today there was more than 50 millimeters of rain,” Budi told The Jakarta Post. 

In Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta, 87 millimeters of rain had fallen in the last two days. The average annual rainfall for the city is 300 millimeters. 

“It only rained for a moment but the intensity was very high,” he said.

 

 

 Water boom: Children watch as high tides break against an embankment in Muara Karang, North Jakarta, on Tuesday. Heavy rain and high tides inundated large parts of the city and brought traffic to a stand still. JP/J. Adiguna

 

On Tuesday morning, the heavy rainfall broke a 25-meter-long dike near Artha Gading mall and a 15-meter-long dike next to the Telkom building, both on Jl. Yos Sudarso in North Jakarta. 

“The broken dikes have been temporarily fixed using sand bags,” Budi said. 

According to the Coordination Board for Disaster Mitigation's disaster center at City Hall, Rawa Terate in Cakung, North Jakarta, was inundated with 1 meter of water Tuesday morning. 

Also, Kayu Putih area in East Jakarta was flooded in water as high as 50 centimeters, Cempaka Putih Timur in Central Jakarta took on 60 centimeters of water and Petogogan in South Jakarta was inundated with 20 centimeters. 

The heavy rain created puddles on more than 30 main streets in the city, causing lengthy traffic jams. 

As of the afternoon, water had inundated a number of main streets in the capital, according to the city police’s Traffic Management Center (TMC). 

Muara Baru in North Jakarta suffered the highest water levels with 40 centimeters, Second Brig. David of the TMC said. 

“Puddles could be found in some areas, mostly in North Jakarta, such as on Jl. Baru Ancol,  Jl. RE Martadinata, East Kelapa Gading and Teluk Gong,” David told the Post.