Surabaya (ANTARA) - A few hours of rain should no longer be capable\nof paralysing a major city. Yet climate change has made weather patterns\nincreasingly difficult to predict.<\/p>\n
At what should be the start of the dry season, Surabaya in East Java\nwas instead drenched by several days of high-intensity rain at the end\nof June 2026.<\/p>\n
Water inundated a number of roads, residents\u2019 activities were\ndisrupted, traffic was held up, and the familiar questions resurfaced.\nWhy do floods still occur in a city that has for years been known for\nseriously building flood control systems?<\/p>\n
There is no simple answer. Flooding in Surabaya is no longer merely a\nmatter of insufficient drainage, but a question of increasingly complex\nurban water governance. The city keeps growing, built-up areas keep\nexpanding, infiltration surfaces are shrinking, while rainfall has\nbecome more extreme due to climate change.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the Surabaya City Government has shown that work\non controlling inundation continues. Since mapping was carried out in\n2020, a total of 1,015 inundation points have been identified.<\/p>\n
By 2025, around 440 points had been addressed, while around 120 more\nare targeted for completion throughout 2026 through the construction of\ndrains, channel connectivity, normalisation, pump stations, and\nretention basins.<\/p>\n
These achievements show that dealing with inundation is not work that\nends within a single budget period. It is a long-term investment\nrequiring phased planning as well as the ability to adapt to changing\nurban conditions.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the greatest challenge actually lies beyond the small\ndrains in residential neighbourhoods. The core problem lies in the\nrelationship between tertiary drains, primary channels, rivers, and the\nestuary. As long as that chain does not function as a single system,\nflooding will persist, even if neighbourhood drainage has been\nrepaired.<\/p>\n
The upstream knot<\/p>\n
Society often views flooding only from the point where water\ncollects. In reality, the problem frequently lies far downstream.<\/p>\n
Sedimentation in the Surabaya River, Kalimas, and Kali Jagir reduces\nthe capacity of water flow. This shallowing slows the water\u2019s journey to\nthe sea.<\/p>\n
Conditions become more severe when high tide coincides with heavy\nrain, producing the backwater phenomenon. In such situations, pump\nstations work harder because the water already pumped out cannot fully\nflow into the sea.<\/p>\n
This is why urban drainage development is insufficient unless river\nnormalisation proceeds in parallel. Water always follows the law of\ngravity. If downstream channels are blocked, building new drains in\nresidential areas merely moves the problem from one location to\nanother.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/caring-for-the-upstream-to-save-the-downstream-1783561962", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }