One Third of Schools Ready To Collapse, Basuki Says
Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama speaks with reporters outside the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) headquarters in Jakarta in this file photo. (JG Photo/Afriadi Himal)
Termites and flood damage have so weakened the city's wood-framed school buildings that the Jakarta administration plans a massive renovation program next year.
Deputy governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama announced the plan at City Hall on Thursday, noting that nearly 30 percent of school buildings in the city were at risk of collapse.
"It's not that the timber is too old, it's that it's prone to termite attack. It hasn't been chemically treated against termites as it should have been," Basuki explained.
"We are speeding up the renovation process but right now state-run schools are a priority," he said.
Basuki said that in future the city administration would no longer use wood for school construction, instead using lightweight steel. Steel wall studs and roof trusses are lighter than the equivalent strength wooden frames, and hence safer during earthquakes.
"Roofs and platforms that use wood are the most vulnerable and dangerous," the former East Belitung district head said.
"Most of Jakarta's school buildings which have collapsed did so because of their wooden materials — one school just collapsed in Klender last night," he noted.
Basuki also introduced new flood protection technology the administration was planning to purchase from Denmark.
The "flood boards" consist of interlocking boards which can be laid on a level surface, then clamped and wired together to encircle a premises, or line a waterway, providing a barrier to floodwaters. The system, which Basuki said can be boxed up and transported rapidly by truck or helicopter, was more effective and reusable than the current approach which relies on the time-consuming and labor-intensive filling of sandbags on site.
He said that Denmark's local governments had deployed the boards along rivers during heavy downpours to prevent floodwaters overflowing into residential areas.
This could work during the wet season in Jakarta, when unpredictable rainfall meant different neighborhoods were threatened by flooding at different times, Basuki said.
Moving on, the deputy governor said that the administration was concerned with the exposure of school children to dangers during their commute to and from school, especially that of traffic accidents.
To minimize the number of students being hit by vehicles, rules would be revised to ensure students studied at the schools nearest to their residences. Currently, parents are permitted to send their students halfway across town to the best schools, if they can afford to do so — a practice that can squeeze out students living more locally.
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