A scene from the 2013 floods in Jakarta
Given that we’re still in the middle of the dry season and have barely seen any rain in months, most people in Jakarta aren’t even thinking about the capital’s annual floods (we’ve got the worsening macet to complain about, after all).
But the floods are still very much on Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s mind, and he is working on a large number of measures that he believes will minimize Jakarta’s flood woes to a trickle when the next rainy season starts.
“We are again focusing on the pumps, and filters must also be sorted out,” Ahok said at City Hall today, as quoted by Tempo.
In addition to the city’s pumps and filters, Ahok said the government and military has also undergone massive efforts to clear the city’s clogged waterways, as seen in this report from TV One on their impressive work dredging the Ciliwung River.
Ahok is optimistic that his measures will, at the very least, prevent the kind of catastrophic prolonged flooding that we have seen in past years, which often leaves parts of the capital submerged for days.
“[If it floods] it won’t be longer than a day,” Ahok said.
Another measure the governor is taking is the creation of drainage ponds throughout the city. He also said he has gotten assurances from state-owned power company PLN that their power outages would not prevent the function of pumps during flood situations and that they would have staff on hand to make sure they keep working during critical situations.
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