People camped out in shelters or with relatives in Indonesia’s flood-hit capital began returning to homes on Saturday to clear away mud and debris, as authorities took advantage of receding waters to remove piles of wet garbage from the streets.
Rivers have burst their banks in some parts of the sprawling city, much of which remains inundated following the worst floods in memory, but electricity and phone service has been restored to tens of thousands of residences and businesses in recent days.
Traffic was slowly moving on roads previously rendered inaccessible, enabling some residents to survey damage in their washed-out houses for the first time.
”My baby has gone off her food and is not sleeping,” said Nasikin, a 40-year-old man who along with 500 others is living under a bridge in east Jakarta. Like many in Indonesia, he goes by only one name. ”It is disgusting here. I cannot stand it any more.”
Floods last week killed or have been cited as a factor in the deaths at least 57 people.
At their peak, officials said about half of Jakarta was covered by up to 4m of water and hundreds of square kilometres of land, mostly rice fields, surrounding the city are still inundated.
Estimates of those made homeless in Jakarta topped out at more than 400 000 out of a population of 12-million.
Sanitation officials have been prevented from picking up garbage that piled up on streets in some densely packed low-income areas, mixing with the black water during overnight drizzles.
That has intensified fears about disease, with the government saying one person has contracted leptospirosis, a potentially fatal disease borne by water contaminated by rat urine. So far, no cases of tetanus or other serious waterborne disease have been reported.
”Residents are complaining about the stench and flies,” said Joko Triyanto, an official at the Jakarta health department, adding that authorities were helping people clear away thick layers of mud and trash on Saturday.
Fire trucks will be deployed to spray disinfectant in hard-hit areas on Sunday.
”We have to clean up the city because dirt and debris have the potential to create disease,” said Rustam Pakaya, chief of the Health Ministry’s crisis centre, adding that about 140 000 people had returned to their homes by Saturday.
Indonesia is hit by deadly floods each year, and Jakarta is not immune. But this year’s have been particularly bad, with about 100 000 homes, shops and businesses swamped in rich and poor areas alike.
The flooding in the capital has caused an estimated $460-million in damage. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this week promised to seek more funds from the state budget to cover the cost of trying to prevent similar events in the capital in the future. — Sapa-AP