Jakarta residents start clean-up after massive flood
Source: Reuters
By Telly Nathalia and Jerry Norton
JAKARTA, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Thousands of Indonesians were cleaning up mud and debris from their flood-damaged homes on Saturday after rains eased and waters that forced many into cramped emergency shelters begin to subside.
At the height of the flooding that began more than a week ago, officials had reported more than 400,000 people displaced by the high water, but the number had dropped closer to 100,000 as the weekend began, one official said.
"The number of evacuees is 37,348 households or 117,545 people," Rini Rahmawati, the official in charge at the sprawling capital's crisis centre, told Reuters.
No new figure on deaths was immediately available. As of Friday 57 people had been reported killed.
Following a night that saw relatively little rain in the capital itself, many turned to the task of making their homes liveable again after the worst floods in at least five years.
In central Jakarta's Petamburan district, where brown mud still covered streets and the stench from mounds of garbage pervaded the air, people were trying to dry soaked mattresses, chairs, and repairing water-damaged cars and motorcycles.
Fears of disease spreading in the metropolitan area of 14 million people remained with thousands of people still in cramped emergency shelters or moving into houses that often lacked working plumbing and power.
Authorities are on guard for diarrhoea, cholera or skin disease, among other illnesses.
"We are working to preventing an outbreak," health ministry official Rustam Pakaya told Reuters, adding that the ministry knew of only about 100 people hospitals had treated for illnesses directly related to the flood.
Three of those victims had leptospirosis, a serious disease spread by rats and mice.
Pakaya said he had seen some areas where garbage had been cleaned up, and had urged "people to use disinfectant, buy it at the shops, or if they cannot find it then to use detergent".
Diarrhoea was a danger not only in itself but because it "can cause cholera as human faeces mix with animal faeces, contaminating wells, so we are chlorinating the wells", Pakaya said, adding that once started cholera could spread rapidly.
BLAME
Officials and green groups have blamed excessive construction in Jakarta's water catchment areas for making the floods worse, while a deputy environment minister told Reuters this week that climate change contributed to the problem.
Above low-lying seaside Jakarta are foothills that have lost much of their vegetative cover to logging and construction of homes and golf courses, making it harder for the ground to retain water from the deluges common in Indonesia's rainy season.
That season has several weeks left to run, which means the situation could easily worsen again.
"This is February and February is still in the rainy season, so heavy rain will still happen," said a weather forecaster at the government's meteorology and geophysics agency who declined to be identified.
Many people have criticised the government for not doing more after the last similar flood, in 2002, to prevent another one.
"No matter what the size of the river, if the government does not pay attention to the environment, this is the effect, people will be at risk," said south Jakarta resident Alamsyah Sagala.
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