At least 26 people have been killed in Indonesia due to the floods that have hit Jakarta and the capital of the country since new year’s Eve. Torrential rains have caused landslides and flooded many neighborhoods in the capital, as reported by the disaster management agency in the asian country. More than 31,000 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters after their homes suffered damage.
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The deceased persons died due to drowning, by hypothermia, or swept away by landslides. Among the victims are a child of 8 years and a teenager of 16, as stated by the agence France Presse. The images arrivals from the region show homes and cars flooded in water and mud, and to citizens trying to navigate with boats and inflatable tires.
“The flooding came without warning,” explains one of the affected, Munarsih, whose neighborhood, in the western suburbs of Jakarta was covered in water. “The water came very fast and went up quickly. We did not take our belongings,” said this neighbour.
The capital, with a population of around 30 million, is often affected by flooding during the rainy season, which began at the end of November. According to the authorities, the figure of 31,000 in evacuees does not include the inhabitants of the towns bordering the capital.
The railway lines of the city remain blocked, and are reported power outages in some areas. The country’s president, Joko Widodo, has informed the press that they should prioritize the evacuation measures and security and has called for greater coordination between the Administrations of the city and the central Government. On his Twitter account, Widodo has blamed the floods to the delays in the infrastructure projects that could contain them. He clarified that some of these projects recorded delay from 2017 due to problems of acquisition of land to implement them.
