Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – The sea water which inundated much of North Jakarta on Monday began receding Tuesday, with residents returning home and traffic on the road to Soekarno-Hatta Airport back to normal.
PT Jasa Marga, the operator of the Soekarno-Hatta airport toll road, said the floods had caused no damage to the road. The company has prepared pumps to drain water during future high tides.
"We have eight pumps in the 27th kilometer, the worst point for flooding. The biggest pump can propel 250 liters of water per second. We still have many pumps in storage," corporate secretary Okke Marlina told The Jakarta Post.
She said the floods had cost the company Rp 150 million after it imposed a toll-free period during the congestion.
The city administration said Tuesday that it will only be able to repair the embankments damaged by the high tide next year as emergency funds are only available for food and medical assistance.
"We can use emergency funds to supply food and medicine for disaster victims but not for physical development," Prijanto said at City Hall. "But we'll prioritize building and repairing sea barriers in next year's city budget."
Jakarta Public Works Agency head Wisnu Subagya Yusuf said it would be "impossible" to fix the broken sea walls now because "it needs a great deal of money and time" but that he expected Rp 15 billion would be included in next year's city budget to repair the damaged embankments and build new ones.
Deputy City Council Speaker Ilal Ferhard, however, said the administration could use the emergency funds for embankment repair with the approval of the home affairs minister "if it's urgent".
Seasonal high tides combined with broken embankments caused flooding in several coastal parts of North Jakarta, submerging the Pluit and Penjaringan subdistricts and paralyzing nearby roads.
The high tide was caused by a 18-and-a-half-year cycle that will see tidal levels continue to rise until 2009, when they will start dropping again.
The cycle is not connected to climate change but it controlled by the moon, according to the Flood Hazard Mapping-Jakarta Floods Project, which has predicted that the next high tides will happen on Dec. 24 this year and June 4 next year.
However, Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) disaster management manager Sofyan said the high tide was the result of climate change, erosion and beach reclamation.
"The tide was extremely high and residents said they had never seen tide as high as that yesterday for years. That was evidently a result of climate change," he said. "Natural erosion by sea water coupled with the administration's reclamation and mangrove forest denuding exacerbated the impact." (tif)