Dozens dead in Indonesian capital and surrounds as role of global heating is acknowledged in ‘extreme’ event

Indonesia carried out cloud seeding to try to prevent further rainfall over the capital, Jakarta, and surrounding areas as the death toll reached 47 on Saturday amid flash floods and landslides.

Two small planes had earlier been readied to drop sodium chloride to break up potential rain clouds in the skies above the Sunda Strait, Indonesia’s technology agency said.

Tens of thousands of Indonesians were crammed in emergency shelters waiting for floodwaters to recede in and around Jakarta after the massive new year’s flooding, officials said.

Monsoon rains and rising rivers submerged a dozen districts in greater Jakarta and caused landslides in the Bogor and Depok districts on the city’s outskirts, as well as in neighbouring Lebak, which buried a dozen people.



National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Agus Wibowo said the fatalities included those who had drowned or been electrocuted since rivers broke their banks early on Wednesday after extreme torrential rains throughout new year’s eve. Three elderly people died of hypothermia.



It was the worst flooding since 2007, when 80 people were killed over 10 days.

“The waters came very fast, suddenly everything in my house was swept away,” said Dian Puspitasari, a mother of two.



Four days after the region of 30 million people was struck by flash floods, waters have receded in many middle-class districts but conditions remained grim in narrow riverside alleys where the city’s poor live.

Wibowo said about 397,000 people had sought refuge in shelters across the greater metropolitan area. Those returning to their homes found streets covered in mud and debris. Cars that had been parked in driveways were swept away, landing upside down in parks or piled up in narrow alleys.

Sidewalks were strewn with sandals, pots and pans and old photographs. Authorities took advantage of the receding waters to clear away mud and remove piles of wet garbage from the streets.

Cloud seeding or shooting salt flares into clouds in an attempt to trigger rainfall is often used in Indonesia to put out forest fires during the dry season.

Authorities on Thursday used hundreds of pumps to suck water out of residential areas and public infrastructure like railways. President Joko Widodo has blamed delays in flood control infrastructure projects for the disaster. Widodo announced in 2019 that he will move Indonesia’s capital to East Kalimantan province on Borneo island to reduce the burden on Jakarta, which is overpopulated and sinking.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report