Jakarta is flooded, again. Just one day of incessant rain, from Thursday night through Friday morning, was enough to paralyze the capital with floods.

Although flooding is a relatively regular occurrence in the city, Friday's flooding seemed to have caught many people off guard. Residents were unprepared for the floods, as were the police and city administration.

No one, no institution, not even the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), warned residents to be ready for the floods. True, the BMG did forecast heavy rain Friday in Greater Jakarta, but it never mentioned the possibility of flooding.

When the capital did find itself underwater Friday morning, the story dominated radio and television stations. By that point, of course, it was too late to do anything but watch the disaster unfold.

The level of unpreparedness among residents, officials and police left the city in chaos, with massive traffic jams everywhere. Commuters spent hours trapped in their cars or on busses, with traffic at a complete standstill in many areas.

The flooding this time also disrupted flights at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the country's main airport. The main access road to the airport was flooded, and the airport's two runways were closed for about four hours because of heavy rain, strong winds and lightning.

The flood simply brought the city's economy grinding to a near complete halt.

A calculation of the losses from Friday could brings us into the trillions of rupiah. These losses are from lost business opportunities, the damage caused by the floods and the lost productivity, from people stuck in traffic and those who simply stayed home to avoid the chaos.

That is just the cost from one day of flooding. It will naturally shoot up should the flooding extend into the next day and the next.

Considering the massive costs, it is time the city administration and the City Council draw up a comprehensive plan to prevent flooding and improve flood mitigation efforts.

We have long heard about a number of big flood-control projects, including the long-awaited East Flood Canal, which has been progressing at a snail's pace, if that fast. Funding problems, especially the unclear division of funding between the central government and city administration, have been holding up the project for years.

Aside from the major flood-control projects, the city administration should immediately launch projects to improve the city's drainage system – if there is any – or build a completely new and proper one.

Experience shows that even a small amount of rain in Jakarta can cause flooding. This is often because of the garbage-clogged drainage system. It is simply a bad habit for many people to toss their garbage into sewers, ditches, gutters and rivers near their houses.

The cost of clearing the city's drainage system of all this garbage is huge. Therefore, a concerted campaign should be pursued to educate people not to clog the sewers near their homes with garbage. If necessary, punish those who fail to dispose of their trash properly.

But this entails the city administration living up to its responsibility. It has to provide the infrastructures, including garbage cans, garbage dumps and trucks to collect the trash.

Clearing the banks of the city's rivers of squatters is also necessary. The city's administration seems to understand this, and has taken some steps to relocate those living illegally along river banks.

But these measures will take time to complete, and we cannot wait any longer for the next major flood.

In a situation like we faced Friday, with flooding everywhere, response measures like the evacuation of affected residents and the distribution of aid are all flood victims need.

Learning from past floods, we urge the city administration and all related authorities to improve their readiness to assist flood victims.

We also commend the participation of residents, especially the many volunteers from private companies and organizations, in helping flood victims. Our people are often united in despair.

The help is there, but what is needed is proper warnings to assemble and deploy. When floods happen without proper warning, as on Friday, we are all helpless.