Jakarta floods trigger sanitation, disease concerns

Jakarta, Feb 6: Flood waters receded in parts of Indonesia's capital today, but huge areas remained submerged and officials were on guard for outbreaks of disease among the estimated 340,000 people displaced.

Businesses were also trying to assess the economic impact of the floods, which have caused power blackouts, cut telecommunications and made many key roads impassable.

Top politicians have also being visiting flood victims, as officials traded blame and the media asked why few lessons seemed to have been learnt after equally bad floods five years ago.

Tini Suryanti of the Jakarta health department said medical staff were trying to focus on sanitation to prevent disease.

''We must be alert over cockroaches and rats. People should clean themselves with soap.'' Supplies of antibiotics were running low in the city, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported.

The floods have killed at least 36 people, Jakarta police spokesman, Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said. Most had either drowned or been electrocuted.

He said flooding in some parts of the city -- which together with the suburbs is estimated to have a population of 14 million -- near the Ciliwung river had not improved.

''Other areas which are outside the passage of rivers are getting better,'' the police spokesman said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been visiting flood-hit areas since last week, but critics said more needed to be done.

''It is only a courtesy from his part to show he cares about the plight of the little people. What he needs to show is not that but how he can bring fundamental changes to the right target,'' said legislator and former minister Muhammad Hikam.

He said Yudhoyono, who is still riding high in opinion polls, needed to deliver on his promises to have a chance in the next elections in 2009. Helwi, a 35-year old street vendor, who has been living in a tent along the rail tracks since last week when water inundated his Central Jakarta house, agreed.

''Our officials can only talk about caring for the little people. We want proof,'' he said.

Construction Boom

Environmentalists blamed poor city planning in a city that has seen a huge construction boom since the financial crisis of the late 1990s.

''This disaster could have been anticipated but the government does not have a plan for a worst-case scenario. Over the past 30 years water catchment areas in Jakarta have been reduced from about 70 per cent to less than 10 percent,'' Torry Kuswardono of the leading green group, Walhi, told Reuters.

The city's downtown appeared to be relatively flood-free today, although muddy flood water can appear and recede quickly as run-off from upland areas runs into rivers in the city.

There was more heavy rain overnight in Jakarta, although the weather brightened today. Massive traffic jams continued in some areas and several train stations were flooded.

Mohamad Sulistyo of the flood crisis centre said flood water remained up to 3 metres deep in the Kampung Melayu district in the east of the capital.

''Jakarta has 44 districts and 40 are flooded,'' he said.

There has been some concern the floods could fan inflation, but the central bank as expected lowered its key interest rate today, the ninth reduction in less than a year.

The rupiah and Jakarta stocks have also been fairly steady.

Indonesia's chief economics minister Boediono told reporters yesterday that he did not see a long-term impact from the floods on Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Reuters

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