We Have Been Flooded for Two Months

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

The Nusantara Bonded Zone in Cilincing, North Jakarta, is inundated on Tuesday (25/2/2020). Floods in the area since Sunday forced a large number of companies to give their workers a day off.

The floods seem reluctant to stay away from residents of Jakarta and neighboring regions, such as Bekasi and Tangerang, as we have seen in the last three days. In the Garden City housing complex, Tangerang, Banten, for example, it has only been two weeks since residents returned to their houses after a cleanup following heavy flooding, and now they have to evacuate again.

On Tuesday (25/2/2020) morning, Zakaria, 29, was sitting with other mothers at an evacuation post not far from the Garden City housing complex. They were chatting while taking care of their children.

Lately, floods and evacuation posts have become a familiar sight for Zakaria. Residents of the Garden City housing complex have experienced flooding four times this year. The worst incident was from Feb. 1-10, when the housing area was inundated with water up to 2 meters deep. "We haven\'t lived in the house for long and the flood come again," Zakaria said.

Yesterday, floods also occurred in Jelambar subdistrict, Grogol Petamburan district, West Jakarta, with a water level of up to 70 centimeters. "Every year there are floods or pools of water, especially if heavy rain falls and the sea water rises," said the chairman of community unit (RW) 004 Jelambar, Anto Permana, 60. The last major floods before 2020 occurred in 2015.

In early January, many cars were submerged in the area because their owners had left them. Yesterday, owners managed to save their cars before the water came

Kompas/Priyombodo

A man eats at a restaurant closed because of flooding in the Bendungan Hilir area of Central Jakarta on Tuesday (25/2/2020). Intense rainfall caused floods that inundated a number of areas in Jakarta, Bekasi and Tangerang.

Tiring

For Zakaria, leaving home to evacuate four times in two months is tiring. When the flood began to recede, he and his family needed a day to clean the house from debris and mud.

"Those who have never been inundated may think [the cleanup] is easy, but it is actually very tiring," he said.

He repeatedly lost his belongings due to the flood. A wardrobe, television table, mattress and some clothes had to be discarded because they got damaged. Each flood cost them up to Rp 6 million.

For Shihan, 17, a grade-12 student of state high school SMA 15 in Tangerang, the flooding means she can\'t focus on studying for next month’s national exam. The floods in the past two months have been troublesome, because she had to clean the house and take care of her younger siblings. Her textbooks are wet.

Overall, Tuesday’s flooding affected thousands of residents in 11 subdistricts of Tangerang city. Periuk subdistrict was the worst-affected with inundation of 1.5 meters affecting 1,882 people.

Since the start of the year, Periuk village has been flooded four times. The cause was always a mixture of a bad drainage system, overflowing rivers and a water pump that doesn\'t work.

In the district of Pondok Aren, South Tangerang, hours of rain caused a river embankment to collapse and the housing complex of Kampung Bulak to be flooded with water as high as 1.5 meters.

The South Tangerang Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) quick response team came to Kampung Bulak at 3 a.m. In the afternoon, they were still busy evacuating residents.

In Cawang subdistrict, the water was up to 2 meters deep, affecting 973 families or 3,565 people in 40 locations.

In Jakarta, BPBD Data and Information Center head M. Insaf explained that as of midday 294 RW neighborhoods, or 10.74 percent of RWs in Jakarta, were flooded. In Cawang subdistrict, the water was up to 2 meters deep, affecting 973 families or 3,565 people in 40 locations.

According to Bekasi city BPBD data, eleven subdistricts were flooded by 30-150 cm on Tuesday morning. Residential areas flooded up to 100 cm included the Jatibening Permai housing complex and Permata Pekayon housing complex.

As the floods started in the early morning, some residents reacted late. "My motorbike was submerged and does not work now. I did not go to work," said Galih, 20, a private-sector employee living at the Grand Prima Bintara housing complex, West Bekasi.

Salary cut

The flood left Dewi, 42, unable to go to work at a factory in Tangerang city. The floods, however, kept her busy taking care of the children and the house.

She is upset when the flood drags on, because every time she does not come to work, the company cuts her salary. "The subdistrict head in my place issued a letter explaining that my house was flooded. I submitted the letter to my office so that I might be given an extra day off to take care of the house and children. However, my office refused and instead told me to take a leave day," she said.

Every day she is paid Rp 129,000. A three-day absence means she would lose potential income of Rp 387,000, a large amount for her.

Aang, a security officer in Jakarta chose not to go to work as his house in RW 007, Gunung Sahari subdistrict, Central Jakarta, was flooded as high as 80 cm since 5 a.m.

Later, every time his place was flooded, he did not dare to leave his family.

Later, every time his place was flooded, he did not dare to leave his family. "This is the seventh flood in my place since early January. My wife is at home and our children [are] at junior high school and […] elementary school; how can I leave them?” he said.

Because of the flooding, Yulianah, 36, Aang\'s wife, was unable to open her food stall that day. Since the early morning, there was a power cut, so she could not cook.

KOMPAS/Lasti Kurnia

An officer speaks at the Distribution Control Center that monitors electricity distribution at the Greater Jakarta Distribution Unit of state-owned electricity company PLN on Tuesday (25/2/2020). Some of the 2,394 distribution substations affected by flooding in Jakarta, West Java and Banten had to be switched off for safety reasons.

She had cooked the rice but had had no time to prepare the side dishes and condiments. Also, she was unable to save the rice from the flood.

"I had no chance to cook the pumpkin, eggs and other seasonings. They’re all inundated," said Yulianah, who had already spent Rp 500,000 on the ingredients. She suffered similar losses seven times during the floods in the past two months.

Losses due to floods also hit railway operator PT KAI, which allows passengers to cancel tickets due to the floods.

PT KAI Jakarta Regional Operation public relations senior manager Eva Chairunisa said the flooding had slowed the arrival of long-distance trains at Gambir, Pasar Senen and Jakarta Kota stations, so their departures were also late. For this delay, PT KAI allowed passengers to cancel trips and get refunds.

It is hard to estimate the total losses due to flooding over two months. Who wants to deal with floods for two months? Nobody. (IGA/GIO/SHR/HLN/MTK/ FRD/JOG/DNE/VAN)