Disease rife in wake of Jakarta floods
With disease rife in the wake of the Jakarta flooding, Darini was forced from her home.
Monday 12 February 2007
The warm dark brown opaque water laps at ankle height and the smell of rotting rubbish hangs in the hot humid air. The queue of people steadily grows outside the tiny house in a riverside slum in Pedongkalan, East Jakarta. Neighbors are busy cleaning their houses and belongings of the black mud that covers everything the floodwaters touched.
The people have come to receive free medical treatment from the clinic funded by Save the Children. Most of the patients are women with young children. They are complaining of a variety of different illnesses: diarrhoea, fever, skin rashes or eye infections. The river that burst its banks has receded to about five inches below the riverbank. The fetid river water bubbles and eddies around the rubbish and debris in its way as small children play on the riverbank with their feet in the water. Clouds are gathering over the city and people rush to put mattresses, clothes and mats in the sun to dry before the rain descends again.
One of the women waiting is Darini, whose eight month old grandchild Intan is propped up in a sarong around her shoulders while she waits patiently in line.
"We could not sleep that first night because of the rain and the next day when the floods came we had to leave the house. We only have a single storey house, we had no choice." Darni explains.
"We did not carry anything because the water was flowing fast so we just wanted to get out of the way. We walked up to the main road and camped underneath the flyover for three days. The police came and gave us a tarpaulin and once a day people came and gave us food. On the morning of the fourth day we were told we could not stay there and we had to come back to our house - the water was still up to my neck (around 1.5 meters). Luckily the water has gone down now and our house is ok but full of mud. It should be ok if it does not rain." Darini said as she glanced upwards to the clouds growing in the sky.
Around the clinic there is evidence of the makeshift rafts people made to leave once the flooding started - anything that would float was lashed together to make impromptu boats - empty water bottles, polystyrene, scrap wood even mattresses. "People who have a second storey in their houses stayed because they were worried that people would come and steal their belongings." Darini explained. Looking upwards you could still see the second floors of the houses overflowing with belongings stacked up to protect from the water.
"The main problem before the clinic came was medicine, many children are sick because of the floods and this clinic is crucial if they are to get better again. Intan has had diarrhoea for the last 24 hours." Eight mothers with their children already wait outside the clinic, which opened only minutes earlier.
The area was poor before the floods, now they are even poorer. The communities that live along the riverbanks and canals - some of the poorest in the capital, those who cannot afford to lose anything - were the ones worst hit. With inadequately constructed houses, drainage and infrastructure they were helpless to the rising water. The waters have gone down but it is not the end of their problems.
"I worry that people will forget about us because the water has gone down. We are forgotten about because we are poor and the flood is gone but we still need help. We need medicine, like this clinic and we need food," Darini explained. "It will take at least two weeks, if not one month for us to get back to normal. We still cannot get clean water easily - we have to buy it for 2,000 rupiah (approx 15p) a gallon. I am not sure if it's even clean," Darini said.
Someone inside the clinic calls Darini's name, it is her turn to see the doctor, she smiles and walks into the dark house.
