Rising Seas Flood Indonesian Capital
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rising Seas Flood Indonesian Capital*
By ZAKKI HAKIM
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; 10:45 PM
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's environment minister said Tuesday that
global warming was to blame after the capital of Jakarta was partially
flooded, forcing thousands of people to flee homes and cutting off a
highway to the international airport.
Authorities used pumps to lower water levels, which reached six feet in
the worst-hit areas and washed more than a mile inland Monday, said
Iskandar, an official at Jakarta's flood crisis center. At least 2,200
houses were inundated, some with chest-deep water.
Indonesians wade through a flooded street in North Jakarta, Indonesia,
Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007. High tides flooded parts of the Indonesian
capital with sea water, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee
inundated homes and cutting off a toll road leading to the international
airport, officials and media reports said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Irwin
Fedriansyah)
"I haven't seen it this bad in several years," said Toki, a police
officer who was directing traffic around a flooded area near
Sukarno-Hatta airport, where thousands of passengers were stranded.
Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said global warming was at least
partially to blame, causing sea levels to rise and making coastal cities
like Jakarta especially vulnerable to flooding and monsoon storms.
Authorities also ignored warnings about exceptionally high 18-year tide
cycles, flood expert Jan Japp Brinkman told the Jakarta Post newspaper,
and the situation was exacerbated by the failure to fix a sea barrier
breached over a week ago.
The flooding came as Indonesia prepared to host the U.N. climate change
conference from Dec. 3-14, which aims to start negotiations on a
replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions that
expires in 2012.
The sprawling archipelagic nation is one of the largest contributors of
carbon dioxide emissions, due to the rapid pace of deforestation, but
experts say it is also at risk of becoming one of the biggest victims of
global warming.
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Associated Press Writer Ali Kotarumalos contributed to this report.