Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Jakarta, where 40 percent of the city is below sea level, may receive more rainfall, the Meteorology Agency said, even as Indonesian authorities were taking advantage of the first respite in three days to evacuate 42,000 people from flooded areas.
Jakarta may also suffer if areas such as Bogor, south of the capital, get more heavy rain, said Wasito Hadi, head of data and information at the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency. Rivers from the mountains of southern Java drain into Jakarta and may overflow their banks. Two days of heavy rain has already inundated much of the city. Jakarta received about 339 millimeters (13.6 inches) of rainfall yesterday, Hadi said.
``We are in the peak rainfall season, which extends from the middle of January to the middle of February,'' Hadi said today in a telephone interview in Jakarta. ``If Bogor has rainfall, it's a problem for Jakarta.''
The Ciomas and Puncak areas in Bogor, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Jakarta, have had heavy rainfall since this morning, ElShinta radio said. The water level in the Ciliwung- Katulampa dam has reached 2.5 meters and started to overflow, the radio said. It may reach Jakarta in the next 10 hours, the radio cited Andi, an official at the dam, as saying.
With 13 rivers flowing into the city of 8 million people, excess rain causes flooding almost every year because Jakarta's only flood canal hasn't enough capacity to handle the runoff. Floods in 2002 resulted in $1.1 billion of damage to property and in lost man-hours, according to Dutch company DHV.
`Not Qualified to Be Capital'
``Jakarta is geographically not qualified to be the capital city, but this is the reality,'' Sutiyoso, Jakarta's governor, said in an interview on Metro TV. ``We can't afford to move the capital city somewhere else.''
The government has debated building a second flood canal for the eastern part of the city, which was originally planned during the 1970s.
``If we don't build the east flood canal, one alternative is to build big lakes in the neighboring area,'' said Sutiyoso, who uses one name.
The government estimates an east flood canal would cost about 4.4 trillion rupiah ($440 million). It would complement the west flood canal, which was built by the Dutch in 1930.
The government is using the break in rainfall to evacuate people, Jakarta government spokesman Arie Budhiman said.
``We hope the weather is better today,'' Budhiman said today in a telephone interview. ``With no rain, the government'' can move faster to help people.
Roads, Power Supply
Some toll roads displayed signs that they were closed because stretches of the highways were submerged. Motorists were forced to use lanes dedicated to TransJakarta Busway on the city's main Sudirman road.
State electricity utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara said it had cut power to 1,680 electricity distribution boxes in areas that are under water, affecting as many as 800,000 homes, Mulyo Adji, general manager of supply and control at Listrik Negara, said in an interview on ElShinta radio today. The utility switched off power to prevent short circuits and deaths by electrocution.
Floods yesterday forced PT Bank Central Asia, the nation's second-biggest lender by assets, to close several branches, said Raymon Yonarto, the bank's corporate secretary.
About 70,000 telephone lines may have been cut as rising water damaged a central switch in the Semanggi area in Jakarta, Muhammad Awaluddin, spokesman at PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the nation's biggest phone company, said yesterday.
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