Severe floods, in some places reaching between one and four meters, hit Jakarta at dawn on Friday (February 2), forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in a desperate attempt to find a safe place to shelter. The raging waters not only inundated flood-prone areas, such as Kampung Melayu or Cawang, but also popular middle-upper residential areas, such as Kelapa Gading, Greenville, Kedoya and Puri Indah.
The floods, which had still not started to recede by Sunday, have practically halted all business activities in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta. At least 20 people have been reported killed in the disaster and 340,000 have been made homeless. They have been described as the worst floods to hit Jakarta in over five years, worse than the severe floods, which overwhelmed the capital city in February 2002.
Reports show that about a half of the city's areas were completely flooded and nine million residents are now on its highest level of alert.
All World Vision Indonesia projects in Jakarta, which are mostly based in slum areas, have suffered from the floods. The most severely impacted communities include the Cawang, Cipinang Melayu, Kebon Pala and Cilincing World Vision Area Development Programmes (ADP's).
These ADP's are currently funded by international Support Offices such as World Vision Canada, Singapore and Japan. Current estimates from the World Vision National Office show some 3000-5000 sponsored children may have been impacted.
Since Friday evening a World Vision relief team, which involves a number of staff from the national office and ADP based staff members, swiftly teamed up to organise and distribute emergency relief aid. The first distribution, which consisted of blankets, sarongs and raincoats were delivered to 600 affected families in Cawang neighborhoods.
"The community at the temporary shelters greatly appreciate the assistance because they could better protect their families from the rains and cold night," said Jimmy Nadapdap, who led the distribution team.
On Saturday February 3, the World Vision team further distributed 600 packages of family kits in the same neighborhoods. As the floods began to affect a number of other World Vision ADP areas, the team continued to distribute much-needed blankets, sarongs, noodle, mineral water and other key items in Kebon Pala and Cilincing ADPs. By Sunday (February 4) World Vision was in the process of distributing 1,300 packages of essential baby kits in Kebon Pala area.
World Vision Indonesia National Director Trihadi Saptoadi joined the distribution team to conduct a closer observation of the impact of the floods on the lives of the poor communities served by World Vision. "We will concentrate more on the victims in ADP areas as they are among the worst affected people," he said. "We are assessing the most appropriate relief programs that we need to introduce in the coming days."
The distribution and relief response was able to operate efficiently and with speed due to the active support given by the affected communities and their leaders, many of which prior to the floods had been part of World Vision-facilitated self-help groups.
Meanwhile, heavy rains in Bogor highlands south of Jakarta on Saturday have resulted in huge volume of waters entering Jakarta since Saturday night. The water level at the Manggarai checkpoint reached almost 1,100 centimeters as compared to its normal level of 750.
With Meteorologists warning that the downpour is likely to continue for another week, and with heavy rains falling on hilly regions to the south, more flooding is threatened.
Available spokespeople from Jakarta:
Trihadi Saptoadi, World Vision Indonesia National Director
Jimmy Nadapdap, World Vision Indonesia Distribution Team Coordinator.
To arrange media interviews please contact either:
Hendro Suwito, WV Indonesia Communications Manager E: hendro_suwito@wvi.org cell: +62-811 997762 or
Andrea Russell Regional Relief & Crisis Communications Manager andrea_russell@wvi.org cell: +91 99892 38223
Pictures of the disaster and subsequent relief response will be available from later today.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
