Five Jakarta Areas on Drought Alert; BPBD Prepares Clean Water Supply

The Jakarta Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) DKI Jakarta has stated that it is prepared to anticipate the threat of drought in the capital city. "We continue to hold coordination meetings and routine monitoring every 10 days or dasarian to take the most strategic steps to reduce or mitigate the impact of disasters that may arise in areas already categorized as alert," said Head of BPBD DKI Jakarta, Marulitua Sijabat, to CNNIndonesia.com on Friday (4/9). The areas of focus for this monitoring are those designated as being on meteorological drought alert by the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). These include the areas of Central Jakarta, West Jakarta, East Jakarta, North Jakarta, and the Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu). "The days without rain have reached 31 days, while South Jakarta is not included in the warning, meaning the days without rain are still relatively controlled or safe," he said. Based on BPBD DKI Jakarta's monitoring, all areas under alert are still under controlled and safe conditions. However, reporting services will remain open if any area wishes to report the impact of drought. "If needed, we will immediately distribute clean water. Residents can also report related to drought disasters in their respective areas or the fulfillment of clean water shortages by calling 112 on the BPBD call center," Maruli said. BPBD DKI Jakarta also reported that the availability of clean water from PAM Jaya can still meet the community's needs. Previously, Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, and BPBD DKI Jakarta reported drought in Kalibaru Village and Semper Village, North Jakarta, on Wednesday (2/9). Regarding this, Maruli explained that the drought was in the form of a shortage of clean water availability. "Actually, it's not all families, all RWs or RTs in the sub-district, only a few locations that needed clean water," he said. "So, the clean water supply decreased, due to many factors causing it. But now, after we distributed clean water yesterday, it has all been met," added Maruli.