Indonesian authorities are monitoring residents for serious diseases after severe flooding caused by downpours in the capital Jakarta, home to nine million people.
Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told reporters that authorities were on alert for outbreaks of serious cases of diarrhoea or diseases such as typhoid, cholera and measles.
More than 50,000 residents have sought treatment for conditions ranging from coughs to diarrhoea after days of devastating floods, which have displaced 340,000 people and killed about 30. Water in parts of the has reached up to 4 metres (13 feet) deep, causing blackouts, cutting telephone lines and blocking key roads.
After heavy rain overnight, sunshine bathed the capital on Monday. Indonesia regularly suffers floods during the rainy season, but the devastation of recent days has been its worst in five years. Meteorology officials have warned the city could suffer heavy rains until the end of February. And a recent study warned that devastating weather conditions in the region are set to become more frequent, as the Asian monsoons strengthen (see Climate change may boost monsoon and worsen droughts).
Advertisement
The Indonesian military has deployed more than 4000 soldiers and provided dozens of dinghies and trucks to help flood-hit residents.
There are fears that the flooding could help spread bird flu among infected poultry and complicate measures against the virus that has already killed 63 people in the country.
