TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Last weekend, heavy rains caused flooding in a number of areas in Jakarta. In response, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) engineered the weather of DKI Jakarta on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. The modifications will be done once Governor Joko Widodo approves.
The weather modifications will go on during the next two months. Head of BNPB Syamsul Maarif said the technology of weather engineering is not to move the rain, but to distribute it to the sea. The process involves deflecting the clouds and bringing them over to the sea, so they will rain over the sea.
The rain which poured in Jakarta since Sunday, January 12, 2014 until Monday, January 13, 2014, has caused many areas in Jakarta to be flooded. The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said that the main cause of the floods in Jakarta is the shift in Jakarta’s landscaping. Head of Public Meteorology for BMKG, Mulyono Prabowo, assumed the absorption capacity of Jakarta’s land towards water has gone down drastically.
But it is confirmed that the rainfall in the past two days are lower than that of last year. This year, BMKG forecasted a rainfall of 110 millimeters. “Last year was more thorough, even in a number of places it was up to 140 millimeters per day,” said Mulyono.
AFRILIA SURYANIS | DIMAS SIREGAR