Anies Distributes Rp. 4 Billion For Toa Speakers To Anticipate Floods

Toa Speaker Anticipating Floods (photo of DKI BPBD document)

JAKARTA - The DKI Provincial Government has budgeted IDR 4 billion in the procurement of loudspeakers in the form of toas as a warning of high rainfall for residents to anticipate flooding during the rainy season.

Procurement of "weapons" for anticipation of flooding falls into the category of Disaster Warning System (DWS). This tool is included in the Early Warning System (EWS) of the DKI Regional Disaster Management Agency.

"The budget for the procurement of DWS is Rp4,073,901,441 (Rp4 billion). The procurement of DWS is as much as 6 sets," said Head of the DKI Jakarta BPBD Data Center, M Ridwan when confirmed, Tuesday, January 15.

The Rp4 billion figure, among which is to establish six expansion stations for early warning disasters for VHF radio transmission, costs Rp4.73 billion each. Then there are also 6 poles for Disaster Warning System, each of which is valued at IDR 53 million.

Six sets of toas will be installed in six flood-prone residential areas, particularly river basins. Among them are Tegal Alur, Rawajati, Makasar, Jati Padang, Kedoya Selatan, and Cililitan.

In installation, a set of four toa will be attached, tied using a pole. When the water level in the river reaches Alert III, the BPBD officer of each region will give an audible warning from the toa-toa.

The DKI Provincial Government has actually procured 14 warning points in 2019. The 14 points are divided into two groups of settlements near the Ciliwung and Pesanggrahan rivers.

Then, this year the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has also budgeted IDR 165 million as the cost of maintaining the 14 toa sets that have been operated.

Previously reported, DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan thought of new weapons to anticipate future floods.

So, when there is information about extreme weather hitting Jakarta again. Each sub-district will deploy its staff to go around directly to residents' homes and announce the notification through loudspeakers.

"One of the things that will be implemented is, if there is news (of a flood), the sub-district will immediately go around giving information to residents, not through the RW and RT levels," said Anies.

The efforts that will be carried out are expected to reduce the impact of material losses to residents such as the floods earlier this year. Anies said, some residents were unable to save their belongings due to the rapidly rising floods after the New Years Eve celebrations.

"Yesterday that night, there was actually a notification. But, because he was informed by cellphone at night, eventually some did not get the information," he said.

Furthermore, Anies explained that extreme weather early warning notifications were obtained from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). The notification is conveyed one channel to the DKI Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), to be anticipated by all levels of the DKI Provincial Government, from each administrative city to the village level.

"To anticipate this, we will build posts up to the village level. So, our urban village has human resources who will immediately respond when inundation (flooding) occurs," explained Anies.