Damaged roads after floods hamper food distribution

The recent flash floods in a number of areas in Indonesia particularly in Jakarta that damaged several roads have hampered transportation, especially disrupted the distribution of raw materials to industrial centers.

Several damaged highways in West Java, such as those in Indramayu and Subang, have hampered rice distribution to Jakarta.

According to Vice Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi on Friday (Jan 24), the floods that damaged several highways in Indonesia have disrupted the distribution of raw materials to the industrial center.

The floods have also hit several districts among other things in West and Central Java such as Tangerang, Karawang, Subang, Indramayu, Pemalang, Pekalongan, Semarang, and Kudus.

Meanwhile almost all roads in the city of Semarang, Central Java, are jammed due to the rain and water logging in some streets, such as in the Road Kedungmundu.

The Vice Minister pointed out that several factories stock the minimum inventory of raw materials in order to be efficient, but the factories also face difficulties in procuring raw materials due to the damaged highways.

Bayu also stated, floods have delayed material distribution from six to 24 hours in a day. Meanwhile, damaged highways and broken bridges have delayed the material distribution from 12 to 36 hours.

"The Public Works Ministry has also been working quickly to repair the damaged highways and broken bridges," Bayu explained, adding that there were several damaged highways located in Javas northern coastal highway, such as Jakarta Merak highway, the Pamanukan area, Kudus and the local Jabodetabek roads.

In the meantime, Jakarta provincial government will immediately improve road sections damaged by flooding, said chief of the Jakarta public works office Manggas Rudi Siahaan on Friday.

Rudi also said that total roads damaged or perforated, among others, in Central Jakarta 3,871 square meters, North Jakarta 80,857 square meters, West Jakarta 14,625 square meters, South Jakarta 16,585 square meters and East Jakarta 24,760 square meters.

The Jakarta public works office has allocated at least Rp6.285 trillion to repair the damaged roads in Jakarta. 

Previously, Jakarta Provincial Government had repaired all perforated levees such as that at the Tanah Abang railway side, Jakarta governor, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said.

In addition, Rudy Siahaan stated that the city will receive a water tunnel network to overcome floods caused by the spatial changes.

"An underground water tunnel is one of the solutions for overcoming floods, which is caused by water catchment areas being turned into commercial areas," explained Rudy Siahaan, here, on Friday. 

The conversion of water catchment areas into commercial areas, such as malls and office buildings, has caused the rain water to overflow onto the roads instead of flowing into the drainage system, thus inundating most parts of the city.

Besides this, the existing poor drainage system cannot contain the large amounts of rain water in addition to the excessive wastewater from households in the city.

"The fact is that the citys drainage system capacity is only three percent, and it is located in the Kuningan and Setiabudi areas of South Jakarta," added Rudy.

Moreover, a number of ongoing utility excavation projects in several parts of Jakarta that are not being implemented according to the citys regulations have also contributed to the reduced drainage capacity. 

"A number of utilities belonging to the state-run electricity company, including telecommunications and drinking water utilities, have reduced the capacity (of the drainage system), especially due to the garbage and mud that is piling up in the drainage network," Rudy pointed out.

Most of these piping utilities are planted some 20-60 centimeters below ground, instead of the norm of 1.3 meters deep.

"Of course we will fix the drainage system immediately, according to the regulations, and we will file a report with the police about these utilities that are thought to have damaged the states infrastructure," Manggas Rudy asserted.

In the meantime, the West Java provincial city of Bekasi will allocate Rp423 billion to repair the roads damaged during the floods, which occurred due to incessant rains over the past few days. 

"The funds amounting to Rp423 billion will be allocated from the 2014 budget, 30 percent of which will be used for flood prevention, while the remaining 70 percent will be used to improve the road infrastructure," Tri Adiyanto, a public works official stated here on Friday.

According to him, all the roads cannot be repaired in the near future due to budget constraints. 

"We will at least try to do temporary repairs to the damaged roads. The ones falling under the category of state and provincial roads will be repaired after coordinating with the West Java provincial government and the Public Works Ministry," Adiyanto noted. 

Adiyanto remarked that the city public works office has been collating data regarding damaged roads in 12 districts affected by the floods that hit the city of Bekasi during January 12-19, 2014.

Apart from that, four elementary school students were found dead after being swept away by the floods in South Tambun, Bekasi, on last Monday.

"The victims have been identified as Agung (13), Gilang Maulana (13), Fajar Ricon (14), and Gilar Satria Nugroho (14). They were the residents of Sasak Tiga Kampong, Tridaya Sakti village, South Tambun," reported First Adjunct Inspector W. Kartawijaya of the Tambun police office, here on Monday.

They went missing since Saturday, after being dragged away by the raging flood waters

Source: ANTARA