Indonesia seeds clouds to stem Jakarta rainfall

Indonesian authorities have started to seed clouds to stem heavy rainfall that caused flooding around capital Jakarta, officials said, after one person died and thousands more were displaced.

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The deluge that began on Monday hit Jakarta, home to around II million people, as well as the neighbouring satellite cities of Bogor, Bekasi and Tangerang.

At least one person - who local media identified as a three-year-old girl- died after torrential rain made several rivers overflow, pushing waters up three metres and submerging more than 1,000 homes.

Authorities estimated the bad weather could last until March II so took the pre-emptive measure of cloud seeding, prompting rain away from flood-hit areas or drawing rain from smaller clouds to prevent heavier rainfall later.

"Hopefully, with the weather modification, we can reduce it,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia's weather agency, told reporters late Tuesday.

“We can't prevent the rain — that’s impossible — but we can reduce the intensity.”

Cloud seeding - the practice of using planes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain - will last until Saturday and focus on mountainous areas in West Java province where heavy rainfall can flow down to nearby cities including Jakarta.