Devastating floods leave 20 dead in Indonesia

BOATS carried emergency supplies to desperate Indonesians today as overflowing rivers again burst banks following days of rain in the flood-stricken capital, leaving 20 dead and 340,000 homeless.

Hundreds of people remained on the second floors of their houses, either trapped or unwilling to abandon them despite warnings that muddy water four metres deep may rise in the coming days.

“Jakarta is on the highest alert level,” said Sihar Simanjuntak, an official monitoring water levels of rivers criss-crossing the city of 12 million people. “The floods are getting worse.”

The government dispatched medical teams on rafts into worst-hit districts amid fears disease may spread among residents living in squalid conditions with limited access to clean drinking water.

Edi Darma, an official at Jakarta’s Flood Crisis Centre, said the death toll from flooding in Jakarta and its environs reached 20 today.

“We were starving for two days,” said Sri Hatyati, rescued from her house by soldiers on a dinghy.

“All we had were dried noodles.

"We were unable to go anywhere.”

Four days of incessant rain over Jakarta and surrounding hills triggered the city’s worst floods in recent memory, inundating tens of thousands of homes, schools and hospitals.

Authorities cut off electricity and water supplies in many districts.

Dr Rustam Pakaya, from the health ministry’s crisis centre, said nearly 340,000 people were made homeless.

“We fear diarrhoea and dysentery may break out, as well as illnesses spread by rats,” Dr Pakaya said. “People must be careful not to drink dirty water.”

Indonesia’s meteorological agency is forecasting rain for the next two weeks.

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands.