Indonesia floods leave 200,000 homeless By IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
JAKARTA, Indonesia - At least 20 people have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by floods in Indonesia's capital, an official said Sunday, as rivers overflowing from four days of rain inundated the city. The government dispatched medical teams on rubber rafts into the worst-hit districts amid fears that disease may spread among residents living in squalid conditions with limited access to clean drinking water. The death toll from flooding in the capital Jakarta had reached 20 as of Sunday afternoon, said Edi Darma at the Jakarta's Flooding Crisis Center. Some in the city of 12 million people were holding out on the second floors of their homes, refusing to be relocated by soldiers in rubber dinghies, officials said. "We fear that diarrhea and dysentery may break out, as well as illnesses spread by rats," Dr. Rustam Pakaya, from the health ministry's crisis center. "People must be careful not to drink dirty water." Waters reaching 13 feet high in places have inundated more than 20,000 homes, school and hospitals in poor and wealthy districts alike, forcing authorities to cut off electricity and water supplies and paralyzing transport networks. In some districts, residents reported that waters receded slightly Sunday, but in others fresh flooding occurred as heavy rains over the southern hills in Puncak caused rivers to swell across the city. Yusnizar, a 53-year-old living in housing estate on Jakarta's western outskirts, said some 1,000 houses were awash with 3-feet-high muddy water. "Fortunately, people here are helping each other," said Yusnizar, who goes by a single name. Indonesia's meteorological agency was forecasting rain for the next two weeks. Environment Minister Racmat Witoelar blamed poor urban planning for the disaster. "Authorities hand out (building permits) even though they clearly violate environmental impact studies," The Jakarta Post newspaper quoted him as saying. Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who was criticized when massive floods struck the city five years ago, blamed widespread deforestation in Puncak, saying it had destroyed water catchment areas. Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands, where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile plains. Jakarta is regularly struck with floods, though not on the scale as in recent days. Dozens of slum areas near rivers are washed out each year. Residents either refuse or are too poor to vacate the districts.
