Death toll rises in Indonesia floods

Boats carried emergency supplies to desperate Indonesians today as overflowing rivers again burst banks following days of rain in the flood-stricken capital which has left 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 running four metres deep in places may rise in the coming days.

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

The government dispatched medical teams on rubber rafts into the 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 surrounding towns had reached 20 today.

“We were starving for two days,” said Sri Hatyati, who was rescued from her house by soldiers on a dinghy on the city’s western outskirts. “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, school and hospitals in poor and wealthy districts alike.

Authorities have cut off electricity and the water supply in many districts.

Dr Rustam Pakaya, from the health ministry’s crisis centre, said nearly 340,000 people had been made homeless, many of whom are staying with friends or family or at mosques and government buildings.

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

There was little rainfall over Jakarta on Sunday, but fresh flooding occurred as heavy downpours over the southern hills in Puncak caused rivers to swell across the city, prompting authorities to open flood gates.

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

Environment Minister Racmat Witoelar blamed poor urban planning for the disaster.

“Authorities hand out (building permits) even though they clearly violate environmental impact studies,” The Jakarta Post newspaper quoted him as saying.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who was criticised when massive floods struck the city five years ago, blamed widespread deforestation in Puncak, saying it had destroyed water catchment areas.

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile plains.

Jakarta is regularly struck with floods, though not on the scale as in recent days. Dozens of slum areas near rivers are washed out each year. Residents either refuse or are too poor to vacate the districts.