Garbage trucks were out in force on Jakarta’s streets yesterday for a huge clean-up of the city after a devastating flood, while nearly 200,000 people were suffering from flood-related illnesses.

The vast majority of the ill were not hospitalised, the health ministry’s crisis centre chief told Reuters. “Most of the displaced suffer from diarrhoea, dengue, severe respiratory problems. The number of out-patients is 190,000 and in-patients is 510,” Rustam Pakaya said.

Fears lingered that disease could spread as people stay in cramped emergency shelters or move back into houses often lacking clean water, plumbing and power. However, emergency medical posts have been halved because most of the displaced have returned home.

At the peak of the flooding – caused by more than a week of rains in Jakarta and surrounding areas, which eased off last Friday – officials reported over 400,000 people were displaced.

Yesterday the figure had fallen to under 59,000 in Jakarta, the national agency for disaster management said.