Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan say if flood occurred in the capital city due to rainfall below 100 millimeters (mm) per day, it was the fault of the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government (Pemprov).
This was conveyed by Anies at the 47th Mohammad Husni Thamrin Journalism Award in 2021 at DKI City Hall, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (25/8). Initially, Anies mentioned his hope for the media to maintain objectivity in reporting. He didn’t even ask to be praised.
“We hope that the media will become a repository of information and multiplier with objectivity. We do not ask to be praised and we do not ask to be shunned from criticism. We hope that objectivity is maintained,” he said.
Anies then gave an example when Jakarta was flooded early last year due to extreme rainfall. Not only in Jakarta, he said extreme rains also resulted in flooding in a number of areas in Indonesia.
But when it happened, according to him, no one questioned the rainfall.
“When extreme rains arise, the first question we must answer is how much rainfall. If there is an earthquake we always ask what is the Richter scale, but if there is rain, we don’t ask how many millimeters of rain it is,” said Anies.
Anies said that if an earthquake occurred with a magnitude of more than 9 on the Richter scale, the destruction of buildings would be a natural thing. However, if the earthquake is only 2 on the Richter scale and the building is destroyed, then something is wrong with the construction process.
He also likened it to the drainage system in Jakarta, which cannot accommodate water during extreme rainfall.
“Similarly (with) the drainage system that was built there is a water storage capacity. We underline to our ranks, Jakarta has a handle, if it rains below 100 mm per day and floods, it is the provincial government’s fault. But if it rains above 150 mm, yes, our drainage system impossible to accommodate,” he said
Furthermore, although the rainfall in the flood early last year was extreme, he claimed the water that had submerged a number of areas quickly receded.
“You can check, the flood in February last Jakarta in 1 day all floods dry. Why? Pumped by all available personnel. Fire engines, park water sprinkler trucks, all of them were deployed to draw water from places where there were floods,” he said.
On various occasions, Anies said that Jakarta would be flooded if the rainfall was above 100 millimeters a day. This is because the drainage system in Jakarta is designed only to accommodate rainfall ranging from 50 to 100 mm/day.
With such conditions, it is not surprising that several points in Jakarta are still inundated with water because the current rainfall capacity is above 100 millimeters per day. In fact, said Anies, some points in Jakarta have rainfall above 150 mm/day or extreme rainfall.
(Yes / DAL)
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