Govt lifts VAT from primary products

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In order to boost the farm sector, the government has lifted value-added tax (VAT) on a variety of goods and commodities, including agricultural machinery and primary agricultural products.

Under a new government regulation, there are six categories of goods that will be exempted from VAT.

These include capital goods, such as engines, factory machines and machine tools, both in knocked-down or built-up form, and feeds and feed ingredients for livestock, fowl and farmed fish.

Also exempted from VAT are farm produce, seeds for agriculture and market gardening, fish and livestock seed, clean water distributed through pipes, and electricity, except for domestic use, where the power supply is higher than 6,600 watts.

The new regulation provides that agricultural produce, including that produced by enterprises operating in the agricultural, market-gardening and forestry sectors, will also be exempted form VAT.

Two killed, four missing after landslide in Banten

PENDEGLANG, Banten Province (Antara): Landslide in Pandeglang regency, Banten province early Tuesday killed at least two people and four others were suspected still buried by the mud.

Residents of Cadasari district found two bodies of the killed people at 5 a.m. Tuesday and they were still searching four other residents, who were still missing, Antara news agency reported Tuesday.

The incident occurred after heavy rains since Monday also caused 13 other residents wounded.

Spokesman of Banten Police Adj. Comr. Aminudin confirmed the incident, saying that police officers have joined residents to search other victims, who were suspected still buried by the landslide.

Landslides also occurred in different places in Bogor regency, West Java. At least 20 houses were burred after landslide in Jonggol district.

Row Stalls New Gas Pipe Near Indonesian Mud Volcano

Jakarta (AFP), by Staff Writers, Feb 02, 2007

Indonesia's state-owned gas company Pertamina has halted construction of a gas pipeline replacing one which burst in a deadly explosion because compensation has not been agreed, a report said Friday. Thirteen people were killed in the November explosion when the underground pipeline in East Java ruptured following subsidence around a nearby gas well that has been spewing mud since May 2006, inundating villages and forcing more than 13,000 people to flee their homes.

Pertamina spokesman Toharso said residents in the district had objected to construction of a new three-kilometre (two-mile) pipeline parallel to the old one as compensation for the land had not been agreed.

"We have started the construction of 1.6 kilometres of the three-kilometre pipe but we cannot finish it," he told the official Antara news agency.

"Residents reject the route we are using because the land settlements have not been agreed," said Toharso.

A change in the route would shorten the pipe but bring it closer to the danger zone around the "mud volcano," he said.

Pertamina also has to wait for construction of an 800-metre long dyke to protect the pipeline, which was expected to be completed in February.

A system of dykes is holding back the steaming mud, which is bubbling up at a rate of up to 150,000 cubic metres (5.25 million cubic feet) a day.

Experts have been working to channel the mud into the nearby sea.

An Indonesian minister, Aburizal Bakrie, claimed last month the flow was a "natural disaster" unrelated to the drilling activities of a company, Lapindo Brantas Inc, which belongs to a group controlled by his family.

However, a study by British experts said that the eruption was most likely caused by drilling for gas.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered Lapindo to pay 3.8 trillion rupiah (420 million dollars) in compensation and costs related to the mud flow.

RI to host CLI meeting of UN forum on forest

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will host a Country Led Initiative (CLI) meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) on the island resort of Bali on February 13-16, 2007.

The UNFF CLI meeting was aimed at facilitating negotiations within the UNFF framework, especially in developing a multi-year program of work, modalities and regional perspectives to be discussed and adopted in the upcoming 7th UNFF, a press statement of the Indonesian forestry ministry said here on Tuesday.

The sixth UNFF, which was held in New York, the United States, in February 2006, issued several recommendations to strengthen the International Agreement on Forest (IAF).

The recommendations included agreeing on four global objectives on forests, extending the mandate of the UNFF until 2015, adding three new additional functions to UNFF and urging the UNFF to continue playing a central role in international collaboration on forests including guidance to CFP.

UN says bird flu endemic in Indonesian poultry

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia faces a serious problem from bird flu, which is now endemic in poultry across much of the country, the UN official heading the global fight against avian influenza said.

The vast archipelago nation is the country worst hit by the pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu with 63 fatalities since its first human case in July 2005.

"The problems that have been faced around bird flu, or avian influenza, are really quite serious in this country," David Nabarro, senior UN system influenza coordinator told AFP in an interview here.

"In Indonesia the highly pathogenic bird flu virus is pretty deeply entrenched, what we call endemic, in poultry in many parts of the country," he said ahead of meetings on Monday with Indonesian and UN officials.

At one point 160 out of 444 districts reported the virus in poultry.

The greater the amount of virus, the greater the risk of human infection and of the virus mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, the British doctor said. Most victims had been in close contact with infected birds.

Upgrading livestock rearing practices in a country where many people keep chickens in their homes, improving health services and increasing public awareness of the risks will take time and commitment, he said.

"It's a five-to-ten year agenda and in Indonesia at the moment it's an agenda that needs to be given extra impetus and Komnas (the Indonesian bird flu committee) and the rest of the government are doing that right now," he said, adding there currently existed an "important window of opportunity."

A lot longer

Other Asian countries that have suffered human bird flu deaths have already taken concerted action to deal with the problem.

"In Vietnam and Thailand it was relatively easy for the prime minister to say 'we are going to make this a high national priority' and to get different parts of government ... to 'march in step' and deal with the problem," Nabarro said.

"The Indonesian political situation and government situation is quite different," he explained, pointing to the high degree of local authority.

Building a consensus for concerted action against bird flu therefore "takes a lot longer," said Nabarro who has worked in public health for three decades.

But Indonesia has recently started to tackle the problem and is undertaking mass media campaigns which Nabarro said were important in raising public awareness of the threat.

"We've seen the issue rise up and then suddenly during the last two or three weeks it's really got a new head of steam and that provides an opportunity for really moving ahead quickly," he said.

Jakarta has just introduced a ban on backyard poultry. Improved veterinary services are being rolled out district by district and officials are trying to keep the pressure on.

"Which is difficult to do in a country where people are experiencing a lot of other problems besides the threats posed by bird flu," Nabarro admitted after arriving in Jakarta where floods have left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

Indonesia has suffered cluster cases of apparently limited human-to-human transmission of bird flu but Nabarro said it was unlikely a mutation would pass unnoticed unless it occurred in a very isolated part of the world.

"So the requirement for spotting it is that people are honest about what's happening inside their country, and it's helped greatly if the health services are working well," he said.

"Even countries that have been identified as perhaps places where information might be hushed up have been remarkably open about problems they're facing as a result of avian influenza," the doctor said.

"So I'm confident that we would have a very high chance of an expanding cluster being picked up quickly and therefore have a good chance of containing it and preventing, or at least delaying, the human pandemic."

Indonesian Must Do More To Fight Bird Flu In Poultry, UN Says

Playfuls.com

Indonesia is showing increased "political impetus" to tackle bird flu within its poultry population, but the H5N1 virus still remains widespread across the country, the United Nations' bird flu czar said Monday.

Dr David Nabarro, the UN's senior system coordinator for avian and human influenza, said Indonesia must expend more energy on "reducing the amount of highly pathogenic H5N1 in poultry."

"We have heard evidence today that (bird flu) is widespread," he told a press conference with Dr Bayu Krisnamurthi, chief of Indonesia's national committee for bird flu control. "We've also heard of possible affects to humans."

Nabarro's visit came after five Indonesians who were in contact with sick birds suddenly died last month, bringing the country's world-worst total to 63.

But Nabarro was generally upbeat about the Jakarta government's progress since his last visit in late 2006, noting its cooperation with international health agencies and new willingness to cull chickens where there is a high risk of an outbreak of the virus.

Indonesia's efforts to curb the spread of bird flu have been hampered by the reluctance of some poultry owners, especially backyard farmers, to hand over sick or potentially infected birds for slaughter.

But the government began offering compensation to local farmers and residents for destroyed fowl, and has also set up surveillance systems across its 33 provinces, as well as begun vaccinating birds and culling when necessary.

Prior to the five deaths in January, Indonesia had not had a bird flu fatality since November 2006. Alarmed, the government banned backyard chicken farms in residential areas in Jakarta and nine provinces, including across densely-populated Java and neighbouring Sumatra.

It is common for residents in Indonesia to earn extra money or provide food for their families by raising chickens in their yards. Health experts say this is one of the ways the H5N1 virus spreads from birds to humans.

Most bird flu victims globally had direct or indirect contact with sick birds, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible among humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta government has not yet decided whether to attempt to impose an intellectual property rights claim over an Indonesian strain of H5N1 that is being used to create a vaccine in Australia.

"It's still under discussion by the government," Krisnamurthi told reporters. "It's not an easy question to answer."

Last week, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the strain on which the vaccine is based belonged to Indonesia, a claim that could complicate future agreements on sharing and using bird flu specimens for research worldwide.

Nabarro said he was hopeful that the issue of intellectual property rights would be discussed and resolved during a forthcoming meeting of the World Health Organisation.

Indonesia could lose 2.000 islands with rise in sea level

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia could lose 2,000 small islands by 2030 due to a rise in sea levels as a result of climate change, Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said on Monday.

According to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the sea level could rise between eight and 29 centimetres (three and 12 inches) by 2030, inundating many of Indonesia's lower-lying islands, he was quoted by AFP as saying.

"Everybody in this world is experiencing directly the effects of climate change, whether it is floods, droughts or, heaven forbid, sea-level rise, those are phenomena that are impeding development," he told reporters.

The archipelago comprises more than 17,000 islands.

Witoelar said agriculture had been affected by changes in weather patterns, with rice not planted on schedule and Indonesia experiencing a significant increase in temperatures.

Indonesia is also expected to see higher rainfall in coming wet seasons.

Floods in the north of Sumatra island in December killed dozens of people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

The Indonesian resort island of Bali will host the 13th UN Climate Change Conference in December, with between 7,000 and 10,000 participants from more than 100 countries expected to attend, the minister said.

Worst Ciliwung River Flooding in 10 Years

Monday, 05 February, 2007 | 14:37 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The floods that have been taking place in Jakarta since Friday have broken flood records in Jakarta.

Yesterday (4/1), the fury of the Ciliwung River’s flooding was the worst in the last ten years.

The waters of the Ciliwung flowed into areas that have never been hit by flood, including Jalan Otto Iskandar Dinata.

At the Katulampa Dam, Bogor, at one stage the Ciliwung’s water surface was 250 centimeters above its peak, with water flow speed reaching 637 cubic meters per second.

“These amounts match the flood record in 1996,” said Andi Sudirman, an official at the Katulampa Dam.

In 2002, when Jakarta was hit by larges floods, the water surface at the Katulampa Dam was only 150 centimeter above its peak.

The water flow speed of the Ciliwung upstream was only 276 cubic meters per second.

The fury of the Ciliwung was also seen at the Manggarai floodgate, South Jakarta, where yesterday morning, the water depth was 1,090 centimeters.

“It’s higher compared to in 2002,” said Adie Widodo, a Manggarai floodgate official.

At its peak the water depth in 2002 was only 1,050 centimeters.

As a result, tremendous floods inundated many areas in the capital city yesterday.

In Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, for example, the flooding was seven meters deep.

The Kalibata Bridge, which the Ciliwung River crosses under, was in danger of being swift away.

Trash clogged up under the bridge made the flow of the river even more powerful.

“The bridge structure trembled. It could end up being swept away,” said Pitoyo Subandrio, Head of Cisadane-Ciliwung River Development Execution.

Due to the Ciliwung River’s continuing ferocity, yesterday Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso declared Jakarta to be on Alert I status.

The governor also opened the Manggarai floodgate heading towards Jakarta Kota, thus putting the State Palace at risk of being flooded.

Up to yesterday, the amount of people who had died because of the flooding rose to 20.

The Search and Rescue team also experienced difficulties in evacuating victims trapped by the floods.

According to Pitoyo, this year the Ciliwung’s overflow is greater than in previous years, and he said, “Seen from the impact, it’s in fact greater.”

The main problem that caused this great overflow is the change in Ciliwung River Watershed zoning.

And it seems as if the fury of the Ciliwung will not subside.

According to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), rain will continue falling in Jakarta and its surrounding areas, including Ciliwung upstream areas, until February 7.

Deffan P | Rudy P | Sofian | Reza M | Rieka R

Many flood victims fall sick; need medical help

JAKARTA (Agencies): Flood victims in Jakarta Monday cried for medical help Monday because many of them fell sick in their temporary shelters as some 75 percent of the capital territory is inundated since Friday

A resident of Jelambar subdistrict in West Jakarta said many of 500 residents affected by a 1.5 meter deep flood since Friday needed immediate medical helps.

"Many people fall sick here, but there is no health post in our areas," the resident of Jelambar told Elshinta news radio.

At least 25 people have been killed, with some 340,000 others forced from their homes, most staying in mosques, schools or with friends. Electricity and water supplies were cut in many districts, and floods blocked off scores of roads.

Jakarta's heavily criticized governor said he could not be held responsible for the worst floods to hit the city of 12 million in living memory, saying they were a "natural phenomenon" that occur every five years.

The government has dispatched medical teams on rubber rafts into the worst-hit districts amid fears that disease may spread among residents living in squalid conditions with limited access to clean drinking water.

Residents in one upscale area hired carts and horses to pull them to safety."The government is awful," said Augustina Rusli, who until Monday had stayed on the second floor of her house since Thursday with her 10-month old baby, expecting the floods to be short-lived.

"We have a neighbor who is sick with cancer but no one has come to rescue her," he was quoted by AP news agency as saying.

A health officer also expressed his fear for possible outbreak of diarrhea and dysentery because flood victims have limited access to drinkable water.

"We fear that diarrhea and dysentery may break out, as well as illnesses spread by rats," Rustam Pakaya, from the health ministry's crisis center. "People must be careful not to drink dirty water."

Doctors association provides flood victims with clean water

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) has provided flood victims in Jakarta and Bekasi with clean water, which is treated from raw water taken from Ciliwung river, says IDI chairman Farid Afansa Moeloek.

"The clean water is available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day within a week starting Monday," he told Elshinta news radio Monday, adding that clean water is proceeded on Jl. Sultan Agung, South Jakarta.

In Bekasi, clean water will be available on Monday evening, while the place of the water treatment would be jointly decided by IDI and the Bekasi municipal administration, said Farid, who is former health minister.

According to Farid, his organization will cooperate with the Public Works Ministry to distribute clean water to the needy flood victims.

Farid said that the clean water processing technology to be operated in Jakarta and Bekasi has been operated to help victims of earthquake in Yogyakarta and tsunami in Pangandaran, West Java.

Floods hit some 75% of Jakarta, 25 killed

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA (AP): Flooding in Jakarta has affected around 75 percent of the city, an official said Monday as the death toll from the disaster hit 25. Some 340,000 others have been forced from their homes.

Storm waters that inundated scores of residential areas and shopping districts late last week were still three meters (feet)deep in places, witnesses and an official say.

"As of today, 75 percent of Jakarta remains flooded," said Anwar Arifin, from Jakarta's flood information center.

Meanwhile, boats ferried emergency supplies to desperate residents of as overflowing rivers again burst their banks following days of rain.

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has forecast rain for the next two weeks.

Hundreds of people remained on the second floors of their houses Sunday, either trapped or unwilling to abandon them despite warnings that muddy water running four meters (13 feet)deep in places may rise in the coming days.

The government dispatched medical teams on rubber rafts into the worst-hit districts on Sunday amid fears that disease may spread among residents living in squalid conditions with limited access to clean drinking water.

Incessant rain over Jakarta and hills to its south since Thursday triggered the city's worst floods in recent memory,inundating tens of thousands of homes, school and hospitals in poor and wealthy districts alike.

Authorities have cut off electricity and the water supply in many districts.

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands, where millions live in mountainous areas or near fertile plains.

Jakarta regularly floods, though not on this scale. Dozens of slum areas near rivers are washed out each year. Residents either refuse or are too poor to vacate the districts

Jakarta floods death toll rises

BBC News

At least 20 people have been killed and 340,000 made homeless by massive floods that have swept through the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Three days of torrential rain have caused rivers to burst their banks, sending muddy water up to 3m (10ft) deep into homes and businesses.

Authorities say the city of nine million people is now on its highest level of alert.

The floods are said to be the worst to hit Jakarta for five years.

Meteorologists have warned the downpour is likely to continue for another week, and with heavy rains falling on hilly regions to the south, more flooding is threatened.

Power cuts

Rising floodwaters have cut water supplies and communications to parts of the city and forced medical teams to use boats and helicopters to reach many of those left stranded.

More than 670,000 people have been left without electricity.

Staff manning a key floodgate in the east of the capital said it had failed and the water flowing in had caused the main canal to burst its banks.

Some main roads have been closed and patients in some hospitals moved to upper floors.

The death toll attributed to the floods has continued to rise since the downpour began at the start of the month.

"Twenty have died since the first day of flooding. Seven were dragged under by strong currents, nine were electrocuted and the others because of sickness," I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana, a Jakarta police spokesman, told Reuters news agency.

Many of the homeless are sheltering in schools and mosques, while others are refusing to leave their partially flooded homes.

Melissa Whyte told the BBC that houses in her area, Cilandak, were "totally washed out and... flooded with up to three metres of water".

"After living here for 12 years I have never seen the floods as bad as this," she said.

Roof-top rescue

In parts of the city, sandbags are being prepared to protect buildings from the floodwaters, while some residents have taken refuge in the lobby of the five-star Borobudur Hotel, reports say.

Thousands of extra police have been deployed to help with evacuation efforts.

Television pictures showed residents being evacuated from their roofs and second floors of their homes.

Mr Ana said police had built more than 200 rafts to make up for a shortage of rubber dinghies.

The water is heavily polluted and, with a recent outbreak of dengue fever, there is great concern about the spread of more disease, says the BBC's Rebecca Henschke in Jakarta

The central government is blaming poor urban planning for the disaster, our correspondent says.

One Jakarta resident, Elan Manoppo, told the BBC there was "no integrated development plan" for the capital, adding: "Most of the city's drainage systems are not taken care of."

After the flooding, the blame game begins

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As hundreds of thousands of Jakartans struggled with the cold and damp, officials on Saturday were quick to muster the culprits behind another year of severe flooding.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso placed the blame on villas in Puncak, West Java, while State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar insisted the floods were caused by excessive development in the city's water catchment areas.

Rachmat said that local authorities had been overzealous in issuing building permits for Jakarta's designated water catchment zones.

"Many ignore the (city) spatial plan, especially the authorities that hand out permits, even though they clearly violate environmental impact analyses," Rachmat said.

He said that large buildings in drainage areas in the capital had worsened the floods.

"There are too many shopping centers in the capital," he said.

Sutiyoso, however, chose to criticize the luxurious villas and residential complexes of Bogor, West Java.

"The floods in Jakarta are partly due to environmental damage in Bogor. The Puncak is a water catchment area but there are now many villas there, causing the downpour to run straight into the river," he said during an interview on MetroTV on Saturday.

Jakarta is fed by 13 rivers that have their origins in West Java.

Sutiyoso said the Bogor administration had sacrificed water catchment areas for economic reasons.

"Yes, they'll get the income from the villas to increase their local budget, but they aren't thinking of the impact it has on Jakarta."

Sutiyoso said that under his management, the Jakarta administration had done well to balance both interests.

"The practice of prioritizing income may occur in Jakarta, but I have managed it well since becoming governor," he said.

Jakarta has experienced a construction boom during his two terms as governor. Sutiyoso awarded dozens of permits to build high-rise shopping centers and apartments across the city.

Environmental activists have warned that the buildings would significantly reduce the city's green space, leading to repeated floods in the rainy season and water crises during the dry season.

Sutiyoso said that the city's high level of urbanization was a problem and had caused environmental destruction.

"Therefore, Jakarta can't resolve the flooding problem on its own. It must be addressed through the megacity plan," he said.

That plan will integrate Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak and parts of Cianjur into an area to be known as Jabodetabekpunjur.

Sutiyoso suggested more lakes be built in the city, as they could be used as water catchment areas in the rainy season and reservoirs in the dry. The city currently has around 43 small lakes, but most are not maintained properly.

Govt. invites investors to build wholesale markets in three cities

JAKARTA (Antara): The government is inviting domestic investors to develop wholesale markets in Makassar, Surabaya and Jakarta, a Trade Ministry official said.

The wholesale markets would be built near seaports in the country's three major cities to facilitate interinsular trade, the ministry's director general of domestic trade, Ardiansyah Parman, said on Friday.

At present Jakarta has a vegetable and fruit wholesale market.

But Ardiansyah said the capital city needed another wholesale market specializing in rice.

Based on the results of a study, the frequency of rice shipped via the Sukarno-Hatta port (Makassar), Tanjung Priok port (Jakarta) and Tanjung Perak (Surabaya) for interinsular trade was high, he said.

Indonesia on high alert as flood toll climbs

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Rescuers and volunteers on Sunday struggled to reach nearly 190,000 Indonesians left homeless by devastating floods sparked by heavy rains in and around Jakarta, as the death toll rose to seven.

Authorities put the capital on high alert, with more rain forecast for Sunday, as police deployed 7,000 extra personnel to assist with evacuation efforts across the city, where water levels reached rooftops in some areas.

"The number of our personnel is enough, but what we are lacking are rubber boats for the evacuation of residents," said police spokesman Untung Yoga Ana.

As of late Saturday, the death toll was at seven in the Jakarta area, according to an official from the National Disaster Mitigation Coordinating Agency, quoted by the state Antara news agency.

The official, Sunardi, also said that the number of refugees forced to leave their homes due to the rainy-season floods, was now at nearly 190,000, nearly double the 106,095 homeless people registered as of early Saturday.

Local television stations showed footage of inundated areas around the capital, mainly along the Ciliwung, Pesangrahan and Krukut rivers, with people shown being evacuated from their roofs or the second floors of their homes.

A key flood gate in East Jakarta could no longer block water flowing in from outside the city, staff there said, causing the city's main canal to burst its banks.

There was no immediate estimate of the number of houses and families that needed to be evacuated.

Members of the Indonesian Red Cross and other volunteers were delivering food to the thousands of people stranded in their flooded homes or sheltering on roadsides.

"With so many points that need to be served, a rotation has to be made," police spokesman Ana said, saying that police had built more than 200 rafts to reinforce the evacuation efforts, making up for the shortage of rubber boats.

Mosques, schools and other public buildings in dry areas across the city were being used as makeshift shelters for the homeless, television reports showed.

The floods have forced the closure of several main roads across Jakarta, while at least two hospitals had to move patients to upper floors.

The state electricity company had to cut power to most inundated areas, adding to the misery of people who opted to stay in their flooded homes. At least 5,000 people were without telephone service.

The meteorology agency warned of more rains to come later Sunday, and that heavy rains were still falling in hilly regions in the south, further heightening threats of more floods.

Residents of Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta -- a vast residential and commercial area inundated in 2002, in floods that killed 40 people -- said the latest disaster was far worse.

"Last time, the water was only knee deep but yesterday, it had already reached my midriff when I left," 48-year-old Brahmanta, who managed to leave his two-storey house with his car when water levels were still low, told AFP.

"I could stay on the second floor of the house, but there is no food, no electricity, no clean water, and the toilets cannot flush," Brahmanta said.

Old Batavia, the former colonial port under the Dutch from where Jakarta has expanded, was built on marshland and some areas of the capital are below sea level.

Indonesian Weather Agency Expects More Jakarta Rain

By Arijit Ghosh and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja

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.

Telekomunikasi's Internet service has also been disrupted, as the company turned off several data servers to prevent damage, Awaluddin said, without specifying how many users may have lost their connections.

Scientists are taking 2nd look at biofuels

Dutch efforts verge on nightmare

By Elisabeth Rosenthal

Published: January 31, 2007

AMSTERDAM: Just a few years ago, politicians and green groups in the Netherlands were thrilled by the country's early and rapid adoption of "sustainable energy," achieved in part by coaxing electricity plants to use some biofuel — in particular, palm oil from Southeast Asia.

Spurred by government subsidies, energy companies became so enthusiastic that they designed generators that ran exclusively on the oil, which in theory would be cleaner than fossil fuels like coal because it is derived from plants.

But last year, when scientists studied practices at palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, this green fairy tale began to look more like an environmental nightmare.

Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the razing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rain forest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there. Worse still, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peat land, which sent huge amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Read More ....

Indonesia trying to stop mud flow

Reuters, February 3, 2007 - 11:59AM

Indonesia will drop hundreds of concrete balls into a mud volcano in a bid to brake the flow of hot liquid that has displaced more than 10,000 people and inundated entire villages in Java, an official said.

The torrent of hot mud has been flowing since an oil drilling accident in May in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb of East Java's Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city.

Numerous attempts to cap or curb the flow since it started have failed.

But now the government plans to try concrete balls linked by metal chains.

"We will insert high density chained balls inside the mud volcano. This technique is expected to reduce the amount of mud flow and ease the pressure at the source of the gushing," Rudi Novrianto, the national mudflow disaster commission spokesman, said by telephone.

He put the cost at 3 billion rupiah ($A430,000) and said PT Lapindo Brantas, the company in charge of the well drilling at the time of the accident, would pay.

"The chains of balls weigh around 400-500 kg each. We plan to insert up to 300 ... We will do it gradually. Our target is we will try to put 50 chains of balls in a day," Novrianto added.

The work was expected to begin next week, he said.

The mud flow has become a political and environmental issue in Indonesia, with the government under fire from critics for what they say were lax safety standards behind the initial accident and for not doing enough to resolve the situation.

Lapindo and PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk, which indirectly controls it, dispute whether the mud flow was caused by the drilling or was a natural phenomenon, and also whether Lapindo alone should pay $US420 million ($A544 million) the government wants for victims and efforts to control the flow.

Energi is owned by the Bakrie Group, controlled by the family of Indonesia's chief social welfare minister, Aburizal Bakrie.

The government - including Bakrie - has said Lapindo should be held responsible for the disaster.

Lapindo holds a 50-per cent stake in the Brantas block from where the mud is gushing. Energi International Tbk holds 32 per cent and Australia-based Santos Ltd the remaining 18 per cent.

Anger has mounted in the affected area over the mud, which in addition to burying homes and displacing residents, was blamed for a gas pipeline explosion in the area that killed 13 people.

Five dead, 100,000 displaced by floods in Indonesian capital

By Nabiha Shahab, AFP

At least five people have been killed in floods in Jakarta with more than 100,000 others forced to camp out at roadsides and in emergency shelters after days of torrential downpours.

With more rain forecast, disaster officials said they were struggling to cope. Hundreds of troops and navy personnel equipped with inflatable boats and rafts were deployed to help the capital's worst-hit areas.

"We have done the optimum effort to evacuate people but because of the number and the vast area to cover we hope people understand (the problems we are facing)," Sugeng Triutomo from the national disaster management body (Bakornas) told ElShinta radio.

More than 100,000 people had been displaced by the rainy-season floods, the state Antara news agency reported, citing Bakornas figures.

Bakornas official Sunardi said five people were killed and tens of thousands of homes flooded.

"We have yet to count offices, school buildings and hospitals inundated by the floods because we are still focusing on evacuating flood victims," he told Antara as the rains started again Saturday evening.

Hundreds of families were seen huddled together by roads on higher ground after fleeing their flooded homes in the city, which is criss-crossed by 13 rivers.

Water up to two metres (more than six feet) submerged areas of the city, including the upmarket Kelapa Gading housing complex in the north, which is usually less prone to flooding.

"I had to put my motorcycle in the university out there and walk in the floods to my house last night (Friday)," Kelapa Gading resident Najmi said.

"The water in front of my house is about one metre. We have been trapped here since yesterday morning," he told AFP Saturday.

Several other Kelapa Gading residents called ElShinta, saying some old people and pregnant women were trapped in their houses and needed evacuation.

Water, electricity supplies and telecommunications have been cut in several areas of the city due to the floods.

Search and rescue workers and nurses in inflatable boats were offering medical help to flood victims along the main Ciliwung river, Hadianto, head of the independent Jakarta Rescue group said.

"Areas that we go to are very far from the reach of cars. We have to hop from roof to roof of people's houses," he told AFP.

Hadianto said the main complaints so far were diarrhoea and skin problems, with children and old people suffering the most.

Indonesian Red Cross and other volunteers were cooking and delivering food to the thousands of people stranded in their flooded homes or sheltering at the side of roads.

City water control officials warned that the floods could worsen, with continuing rains in nearby Bogor city expected to exacerbate the situation by nightfall.

"Katulampa watergate is 70 centimetres (28 inches) above normal and the water level is rising," a Jakarta water control officer told AFP, referring to the main sluice gate controlling the flow of water from Bogor, which is at a higher elevation.

More rain was forecast over the weekend.

Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar blamed the floods on excessive construction in water catchment areas, Antara reported.

"There are too many malls in the capital city," he said, complaining that many developers had not paid enough attention to the ecological impact of construction projects.

Old Batavia, the former colonial port under the Dutch from where Jakarta has expanded, was built on marshland and some areas of the capital are below sea level.

In 2002, floods killed up to 40 people and some 300,000 were forced to seek refuge in mosques, schools and even cemeteries.

Floods unite Jakartans

After two days of heavy rain, floods paralyzed Jakarta and its buffer towns on Friday to a degree that surely exceeded the flooding of five years ago, which up to this point was considered the worst natural disaster to hit the capital.

Many residential areas that in the past have been flood-free were affected this time around. And people who live in areas where flooding is an annual occurrence suffered more than usual as their houses were under even more water than ever.

Nobody, it seems, could escape nature's wrath Friday. Even the elite housing complex for high state officials in South Jakarta turned into a big pond.

The monetary cost of the floods will be enormous. Thousands of people lost property and many roads and other infrastructure were damaged. These financial losses do not take into account the time and energy wasted by motorists trapped in traffic, or the lost productivity because many employees could not reach their offices.

Floodwaters covered railway tracks, forcing the cancellation of more than 100 trains departing from or heading to Jakarta. A number of flights were either canceled or delayed because passengers could not reach the international airport just outside of Jakarta.

The telecommunications network was partly disrupted, with state phone operator PT Telkom and private operator PT Exelcomindo announcing damages to some facilities.

The annual floods in Jakarta seem to be getting worse and worse as the years go by. Now even a few hours of moderate monsoon rain causes some roads to become inundated, resulting in traffic jams several kilometers long.

Perhaps, though, this should come as no surprise. Jakarta, covering about 64,000 hectares, is located on a low-lying plain dissected by 13 rivers.

Its geographical situation, however, is not an excuse for the repeated floods. Nor is the general perception that flooding in Jakarta is "imported" from Bogor in West Java, where all the rivers running through the capital originate.

The fact is that in many parts of the city, poor drainage was responsible for the floods on Friday. If ever it was needed, this is clear proof of the flawed management of the city, as well as of the ignorance of residents on the need to keep their city clean.

Jakarta taxpayers have spent a lot of money to build and maintain flood control infrastructure, including the budget allocated for the much-awaited construction of the East Flood Canal.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who visited flood victims in East Jakarta on Friday, said the central government would take over the responsibility of dealing with annual floods from the Jakarta administration. Jakartans may praise the initiative, but the policy could be seen as an indictment of the city administration's ability to protect its people.

Though the worst of the flooding appears to be over now, more than 40,000 people have been displaced and are in need of shelter, food and healthcare. The city administration could make amends for its failed flood prevention programs by taking the necessary measures to ease the people's suffering as quickly as possible.

The floods could also worsen the current dengue fever outbreak, which has killed eight people and affected hundreds of others in Jakarta. Other diseases like diarrhea and skin ailments could also spread among those displaced by the floods.

There is, however, a bright side to the disaster. In a show of compassion, many people volunteered to help evacuate those whose houses were affected by the floods, while others donated food and medicine.

Radio stations and TV channels provided continuous updates on the flooding to help those looking for a safe way home, as well as raising funds to assist flood victims.

In the coming days, those displaced by this latest disaster will need assistance to survive and rebuild their homes and lives. Let us continue to work together in a show of the strength and unity of Jakartans.

Indonesia's RNI to build more ethanol factories

Reuters, Yahoo Finance - 2007-02-01 11:42:35

JAKARTA, Wed Jan 31, 2007 (Reuters) - Indonesian state-owned trading firm PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI) said on Wednesday it plans to build two ethanol factories with a total capacity of 200,000 litres a day to tap growing demand.

The company will build one ethanol factory in Cirebon, Central Java, and another in Malang in East Java, each with a capacity of 100,000 litres a day, said Son Ramadir, RNI's development director.

The project will cost $40 million and the factories are expected to be completed between 2008 and 2009.

"We are developing a new strategy in the downstream industry including in renewable energy to improve competitiveness," Ramadir told reporters.

"The potential is huge with the surging "The potential is huge with the surging crude oil prices and declining crude oil reserves in the country," he said.

Previously, the company had also planned to build an ethanol factory in Subang, West Java, with output capacity of 100,000 litres per day and is expected to complete construction in 2008.

RNI's move reflects growing interest in biofuel production in Indonesia as authorities are encouraging alternative sources of energy to cut fuel subsidies, inflated by soaring crude oil prices.

RNI joins several Indonesian companies that have announced plans to build green fuel plants, mostly palm-oil based biodiesel, including PT Asian Agri and PT Bakrie Sumatra Plantations

The country's vast land resources and cheap labour have also attracted several foreign companies to enter the Indonesian biofuel industry, including Golden Hope Plantations, Genting Bhd and Sime Darby Bhd and Wilmar Holding Pte. Ltd.

The most recent investment plan was from Chinese oil major CNOOC in early January which announced plans to join palm oil producer PT Smart Tbk and a Hong Kong energy firm to invest $5.5 billion in producing biofuel in Indonesia.

Ramadir said the company will use sugar-cane molasses from its own plantations for production of ethanol.

Ethanol, used as an alternative motor fuel or fuel additive, is produced from cane molasses -- a thick syrup produced from sugar cane during the sugar extraction process.

The company owns 11 sugar mills, producing 325,218 tonnes white sugar in 2006. ($1=9,090 rupiah)

Bird Flu: National Disaster

Thursday, 01 February, 2007 | 15:25 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government will soon classify the bird flu epidemic as a national disaster.

“The President has already given an indication that this is a national disaster, one that we must handle comprehensively,” said Paskah Suzetta, State Minister for National Development Planning and concurrently Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bapenas), at the Finance Department building, Jakarta, yesterday (31/1).

Paskah explained that bird flu is to be classifies as a national disaster because it is a contagious disease that easily spreads to many areas and there have already been too many victims.

With this classification, the handling of the situation by the central government, regional governments and members of the public will be more integrated.

“So management of the situation will no longer be on an ad hoc basis anymore.”

Before bird flu epidemic is officially classified as a national disaster, Paskah said that management was regional governments’ responsibility so regulations are various.

In the future, the central government’s duty is to help regional governments.

Removal of animal husbandry and elimination of poultry will be still regional governments’ responsibilities.

Via the Health Department, the central government will provide direction and medical facilities.

Soetedjo Yuwono, Secretary to the Coordinating Minister for the People’s Welfare, confirmed that the President will issue a special instruction on bird flu management.

According to him, classifying the status of bird flu as a national disaster in fact must be studied thoroughly in order to avoid any overreacting by the public.

“Just wait for a day or two, it may be issued,” he said.

Up until January 29, this year, according to the Health Department, in Indonesia the total number of people suffering from bird flu has been 82, of whom 64 of them died.

There have been deaths in Jakarta (18), Banten (10), West Java (21), Central Java (5), East Java (3), North Sumatra (6) and South Sulawesi (1).

Paskah explained that funds for bird flu management were from the State Budget allocation for disasters.

“The actual amount is still being calculated,” said this Golkar Party politician.

For certain, the amount of funds will be higher than at present.

Agus Supriyanto, Kurniasih Budi, Ewo Raswa, Jopbie Sugiharto and Suryani Ika Sari

Quake jolts Gorontalo

GORONTALO (Antara): A 5 magnitude undersea earthquake shook the Indonesian province of Gorontalo on Thursday evening, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake's epicenter was in the Maluku sea at a depth of 98 km, head of the provincial meteorology and geophysics office Kusnobudi said.

Earlier on the day, an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale shook the southern part of Java island. The quake was centered in the sea 147 km southwest of Sukabumi in West Java.In

donesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

Strong quake hits Sukabumi

JAKARTA (JP): A magnitude 5.9 earthquake Thursday rattled West Java town of Sukabumi with epicenter 147 kilometers southeast of the town, says Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

The agency did not report any damage, casualty or tsunami over the tremor occurred on 3:31 a.m. Thursday.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that battered much of the Indian Ocean coastline and killed more than 230,000 people - 131,000 of themin Indonesia's Aceh province alone.

A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.

Flooding covers wider areas in Greater Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Flooding in the Greater Jakarta covers wider areas Thursday as the rains continue to pour the capital on Tuesday.

The 30-centimeter high water covered Jl. M.H. Thamrin from Sarinah shopping center to Dukuh Atas, the main thoroughfares in Central Jakarta, Elshinta news radio said.

Severe traffic congestions occurred on Jl. Thamrin and other parts of the capital as water ponds were seen in many parts of the roads, according to the radio, citing a number of reports from its listeners.

Water Thursday also began inundating hundreds of houses in Rawabuaya subdistrict in West Jakarta where residents had tried to save their properties.

Other flood-hit areas include Cilincing in North Jakarta, Menteng in Central Jakarta, Kelapa Gading in East Jakarta. Rain water also inundated parts of the presidential office in Central Jakarta.

Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) Tuesday warned of heavy rains in the Greater Jakarta this week with downpours reached between 50 to 100 millimeters per day as compared to 30 to 40 millimeters in the previous week.

Water still inundates thousands of houses in Bekasi and one of the universities in the city.

IN Jakarta, the worst area hit by flood is Cawang subdistrict in East Jakarta and Kampung Melayu subdistrict, in East Jakarta as over thousands of residents fled their inundated houses.

Floods also hit Bidara Cina district also in East Jakarta as well as a number of subdistricts in South Jakarta like Kalibata, Pancoran, and Pejaten.

Jambi-Kerinci road cut by landslide

JAMBI, Jambi (The Jakarta Post) : A major highway in Jambi city was again hit by landslides, this time cutting the road at Muaroamat village, Batangmerangin district in Kerinci regency.

There are at least 50 landslide-prone areas along the Jambi-Kerinci route.

The road was covered with earth as high as one meter, with fallen trees obstructing traffic.

Around 100 vehicles coming from both directions were stranded by the landslide.

Many bus passengers were forced to walk for six hours to continue their journey with other buses from Batangmerangin to Sungaipenuh.