Several days of torrential rain in January 2007 caused flooding in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, leaving more than 70,000 houses inundated as rivers burst their banks.
Around 168,000 people were evacuated from the affected areas to 525 safe sites around the capital. 33 people have died in the flooding, many from electric shocks.
Water levels in Jakarta are now subsiding and some people have started returning to clean up their houses. However, rainfall is continuing to hamper the cleanup effort.
Health danger
The flooding is contributing to an outbreak of dengue fever that has killed at least 307 people already this year. Another 20,000 people are infected with the mosquito-borne virus.
Indonesian government officials have issued warnings of a large increase in cases of dengue fever, while the World Health Organisation has reported cases of respiratory infections, diarrhoea, gastritis, leptospirosis and tetanus.
Infrastructure damage
The floodwaters inundated up to 520 elementary schools and damaged 120,000 communication lines.
Electricity is still turned off in some parts of Jakarta, especially where flooding was serious, to avoid further deaths from electricity shocks.
Several roads are still flooded, hampering the transportation of aid west of Jakarta.
Islamic Relief’s action
Islamic Relief has allocated just under £9,000 for an emergency response. IR aid workers have assessed the needs of people in east and west Jakarta and are participating in a coordinated aid effort in the city.
Islamic Relief has been given responsibility for distributing food and aid items in Klender village, eastern Jakarta.
IR aid workers are distributing blankets, hygiene kits and cooking utensils. IR is also supplying four industrial stoves to serve people living in temporary sites.
IR aid distributions also include kerosene, rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, noodles, canned fish, baby food, biscuits and instant porridge.
Community Mobilisation
IR is leading a project in which teams made up of people from the affected community clean up the environment and set up early warning systems to mitigate possible future floods.
IR is also distributing tools and equipment to help people clean up their homes so that they can return as soon as possible.