Indonesian officials evacuate residents in Manado, north Sulawesi yesterday.

DPA/Jakarta

Indonesian authorities are using cloud seeding to divert rain away from Jakarta after four people were killed because of flooding, officials said yesterday.

More than 5,000 people were displaced by flooding in several areas in the capital this week following days of heavy rain.

The seeding operation, which involves dropping salts onto clouds, is aimed at stimulating rain over the sea before it can reach Jakarta, said Heru Widodo, the head of the artificial rain department at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology.

The operation will last for two months and is expected to cost 20bn rupiah ($1.6mn), he said.

“It’s too early to say whether the effort has been successful, but it costs only a small fraction of any losses caused by flooding in Jakarta,” Widodo said.

The capital’s disaster management agency said four people had been killed by floods that hit parts of Jakarta since Monday.

Last year, 26 people were killed during days of flooding in the capital. Flooding is an annual occurrence in the sprawling city of more than 10mn people, despite pledges by successive governors to stop it. About 40% of the city lies below sea level, made worse by clogged rivers, sewers and storm drains, and poor city planning.