The Belly of the Beast
Unseasonal heavy rains for this time of year are keeping Jakarta awash in one flood after another. The effects of these floods are increasingly serious as a consequence of Jakarta’s bad drainage system. Putting in order the city’s underground sewers will not suffice.
November 17, 2010
THE call to afternoon prayer was just over but the capital’s menacing skies were already bringing the darkness of evening. A thick spread of clouds tightly closed off the afternoon sun’s rays. The hand phone of Tarjuki, the Head of City Services for Care of Water Resources from the Ministry of Public Works, was ringing. Like some long-standing tradition whenever the skies open up and the rains come pouring down, the ringing of his telephone i
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