Rainy season is nemesis of any Jaka

Rainy season is nemesis of any Jakarta governor. In the early 1970s, then governor Ali Sadikin always urged regents, district heads, community unit heads and neighborhood unit heads in Jakarta as well as all residents to clean their drainage systems.

Gutters and drainage canals should be free from plastic garbage, the evil stuff that clogs drainage systems, in order to avoid heavy flooding.

He even talked to his citizens on TV a few months before the rainy season started. He personally went to the most outlying areas in Greater Jakarta to help clear gutters and drainage systems and he checked on whether officials were doing their jobs.

Citizens of Jakarta constantly need education and warnings with regard to plastic garbage. Since Jakarta constantly grows with many people arriving to find jobs, Jakarta has grown out of proportion.

Fauzi Bowo succeeded in building two flood canals and was about to build a third to alleviate heavy flooding.

But even he had to admit that it is a king-size job to free Jakarta from flooding. He built the elevated road to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in record time to at least help travelers be on time for their flights.

Canals and rivers should be cleared of garbage and dredged before the rainy season begins in earnest.

the newly-elected governor should use the media to constantly educate his citizens. Garbage is piled high in the vicinity of any market in Jakarta; plastic garbage is everywhere near restaurants and shopping malls.

heaps of garbage is a thorn in the eye. Garbage collectors are working their fingers to the bone. Drainage canals are used as garbage dumps by ignorant Jakarta citizens. Rivers are full of plastic garbage with an occasional corpse floating amid all this junk.

If Jakarta citizens continue to be ignorant, they should not blame the city’s authorities for their flooded city and flooded underpasses.