“Some 260 cubic meters of garbage was collected from the Manggarai sluice gate in Menteng sub-district, Central Jakarta,” said Efron Firdaus, a member of the Jakarta Water Department's Rainy Season Task Force, here on Monday.
Meanwhile, about 144 cubic meters of garbage was collected from the Season City West Flood Canal in Tambora, West Jakarta, and 32 cubic meters of garbage was collected from the Kampung Melayu Bridge in East Jakarta, he added.
The garbage that was stuck at the Kampung Melayu Bridge in Jatinegara sub-district was carried away by the Ciliwung River's currents, he said adding, most of the trash collected comprised twigs, plants, and household waste.
As part of flood prevention measures during the rainy season, the Jakarta provincial government has deployed around five thousand members of the trash task force, including river troops, to clear several main rivers of waste.
According to the acting head of Jakarta's Environment Office, Syaripudin, the trash task force personnel are being deployed in shifts 24 hours a day.
Their main tasks are monitoring the condition of such rivers as Ciliwung, Pesanggrahan Angke, and Kali Sunter, which flow through the capital city, he told journalists on February 2, 2021.
The task force members include personnel from the Jakarta Water Department and the Environment Office, he said.
They are being kept on standby to monitor the condition of the targeted rivers, which are prone to choking up with mountains of waste carried by currents from other areas during flooding, he informed.
The task force has been provided 44 vehicles for waste collection, 50 garbage trucks, 32 excavators, 23 mobilization officers, and 12 mechanical engineering staffers to carry out the task, Syaripudin said.
The Jakarta Environment Office has formulated standard operating procedures for handling trash during the rainy season, based on the outcomes of monitoring of Katulampa dam's water level, tidal flooding, and high intensity of rainfall.
Floods have posed a serious challenge to Jakarta governors and their administrations over the past few decades.
Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has cautioned residents in the provinces of Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and Central Java to remain alert for a likely downpour on February 8-9, 2021.
Potential downpours may not be solely triggered by the La Nina weather phenomenon, but also by other atmospheric dynamics that could increase the intensity of rainfall in several parts in Indonesia, the agency's seismologist, A. Fachri Radjab, has forecast. (INE)
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Translator: Andi F, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Suharto
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