Jakarta Offices Called to Apply for Work From Home During Extreme Weather

Please work from home if the weather is extreme

Jakarta Acting Governor, Heru Budi Hartono urges all offices to apply for a Work From Home (WFH) policy for their employees when extreme weather occurs in Jakarta.

It was aimed to avoid disasters during extreme weather predicted by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to occur from December 25, 2022 to January 2, 2023.

BMKG: Jakartans May See Extreme Weather During Christmas and New Year

"Please work from home if the weather is extreme. Surely, it is to hinder congestion, disaster, wastage, and other dangers," he expressed, at Graha BNPB Office, East Jakarta Tuesday (12/27).

As reported earlier, Jakarta BPBD Head, Isnawa Adji reminded all residents to monitor the potential for extreme weather this week in anticipation of floods, earthquakes, and weather changes.

"If there is an extreme weather warning such as strong winds and heavy rain, residents should stay at home to avoid danger outside," BPBD Head expressed.

In the meantime, BNPB Head, Let. Gen. TNI Suharyanto revealed Jakarta is one of the provinces that has a high potential for disaster risk.

"We all know that in Jakarta, with quite high rainfall, this is also the potential for an annual flood disaster, which we must address and anticipate," he continued.

Hence, it was necessary to take precautionary measures considering that the end of 2022 and the beginning of January had quite a lot of rain.

"Should there be such a flood or heavy rainfall, the Jakarta Provincial Government will be able to handle it quickly in collaboration with BNPB," he concluded.

Weather Modification Technical Coordination (TMC)

Regarding the TMC implementation plan, the Jakarta BPBD has coordinated with the 1st Squadron 2nd Air Wings of the Indonesian Air Force, BRIN, and BNPB at Halim Perdanakusumah Airport, East Jakarta on Tuesday (12/27) afternoon. "Based on the results of coordination with the Indonesian Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, there are two patterns of handling for TMC, the first is by 'jumping process' or prematurely preventing rain clouds from entering the Jakarta area, thus they fall and the rain that occurs only drizzles. Second, with a competition pattern, namely burning salt seedling material by disrupting cloud growth, by adding condensation cores," said Jakarta BPBD Chief Executive, Isnawa Adji.

Based on the readiness of the Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU), the CN-212 aircraft type could carry 800 kg of salt seedling material with manual deployment techniques. Meanwhile, the Cassa aircraft type can load 2.4 tons which takes 2 hours to prepare the salt seedlings into consul shape. The Hercules aircraft can load a minimum of 5 tons of seedling material.

TMC will only be effective from early morning until around 5 PM, with effective results occurring within the next 4-15 hours. It can be prepared to be implemented in Jakarta if the regional head has declared an emergency alert status. Regarding this, BNPB stated its readiness to carry out the TMC assisted by TNI AU, National Agency for Research and Innovation (BRIN), and Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

Jakarta BPBD Alert to Potential Disasters

Jakarta BPBD is ready to face potential hydrometeorological disasters by making several efforts. Through the distribution of supporting facilities and infrastructure for flood handling in each urban village in flood-prone areas, ensuring the readiness of disaster preparedness posts and evacuation sites (along with supporting equipment) at the City/District Administration, Sub-district, and Urban Village levels to be on standby and can be activated when a disaster occurs, as well as alerting 267 Disaster Management Officers/TRC personnel in all sub-districts in Jakarta in a bid to accelerate disaster coordination and management.

Aside that, they also have coordinated with BNPB, BMKG, Mayor/Regent, and all stakeholders to collaborate in disaster management. "We also open up space for community participation in joint flood prevention efforts through disaster management capacity-building activities for apparatus, volunteers, and other members of the community. As well as collecting data on potential resources owned by each agency/institution for disaster management in Jakarta. A flood preparedness guidebook has also been distributed to the community," he explained.

He also urged the public that if they find problems that require further handling (fallen trees, trash, clogged drains, etc), report them via JAKI application on the JakLapor feature. "If you encounter or experience an emergency that requires immediate assistance, contact the Jakarta Siaga 112 Call Center. This service is toll-free and can be accessed 24 hours non-stop," he added.