REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Jakarta's Health Service officials are bracing to deal with the impact of the Jakarta floods that have hit the capital city, said Jakarta Health Service Head Dien Emmawati.
"We are ready with utilities such as medical equipment, paramedics, and disease-handling facilities to anticipate the impact of the floods on the health of Jakarta residents," Dien stated here on Friday (21/11).
She noted her office has also set up health command posts at flood evacuation centers to provide medical services.
Dien cited that following the recent floods in East Jakarta, her office has set up health command posts at the East Jakarta Health Service building and at Hermina hospital.
A health command post has also been set up at a flood evacuation center in South Jakarta, also hit by floods, she added.
Earlier, on Thursday (Nov 20), the Jakarta Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) announced an onslaught of floods that reached a height of 400 centimeters in East Jakarta.
By Thursday noon, the floods forced 17,569 people in East Jakarta to seek temporary shelters.
"They are from Kampung Pulo, Bidara China, and Cawang areas," Chandra Gunawan of the BPBD said here on Thursday.
The data on the number of displaced people was released by the Jakarta BPBD at 11 a.m. on Thursday. The data is updated every six hours.
The floods were triggered by the overflowing of the Ciliwung River, following incessant heavy rains in Bogor, West Java, on Wednesday afternoon.
The displaced people have been accommodated in government offices and mosques. Several local communities have set up public kitchens even as flood waters measuring up to 30 centimeters to four meters inundated many areas in East Jakarta.
Earlier, the Jakarta BPBD office reported that 487 people from Kampung Pulo and Bidara Cina, East Jakarta, evacuated to higher grounds on Thursday morning.
The health office has distributed relief aid comprising food and medicines. The BPBD is coordinating the relief efforts.
On Friday, some 500 flood-affected people in South Jakarta and 495 in East Jakarta are still staying in temporary shelters, waiting for the floodwaters to recede.
"In East Jakarta, there are 495 people, while in Pangadegan, South Jakarta, there are around 500 people," Margowiyono, the social affairs ministry's director of social protection for natural disaster victims, remarked here on Friday.
The displaced people are being accommodated in mosques, government offices, and Hermina Hospital in East Jakarta.
The Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD) reported that the floods have affected some 16,423 people from 4,498 families.
Public kitchens have been set up to provide food to the flood-hit.
The floods inundated Kampung Pulo, Bidara Cina, and Cawang in East Jakarta, as well as Pengadegan, Pancoran, and Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta.
Last year, Jakarta incurred material losses adding up to Rp20 trillion, or US$2 billion, because of floods.
In January 2014, when the rainy season reached its peak, floods claimed 23 lives and displaced tens of thousands of people.
The floods in 2007 was the worst that hit Jakarta to date.
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