Flooding, a chronic problem in Jakarta<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
If you think flooding in Jakarta is a new phenomenon you
\ncouldn't be more wrong. For hundreds of years, perhaps even
\nlonger, the area where the capital is situated has been plagued
\nby annual flooding.<\/p>\n
As early as the 1640s the administration of the then Batavia,
\nthe Dutch East India Company (VOC), had realized the need for
\nflood prevention and dug a system of channels to surround and
\npenetrate the town, according to Susan Abeyasekere in her book
\nJakarta, A History (1989).<\/p>\n
The Kali Besar itself was straightened out to form the biggest
\ncanal of all, she wrote.<\/p>\n
\"The land was so low lying that unless earth was dug out to
\nraise the level of built-up areas, the settlement would be
\nregularly flooded,\" Abeyasekere says.<\/p>\n
However, the canal system had never managed to solve the
\ngrowing city's drainage problems completely, and in 1846 P.
\nBleeker, a Dutch topographer, wrote that the lower lying areas of
\ntown were subject to flooding and that the 1,069 densely packed
\nhouses there sometimes stood three to four feet deep (90
\ncentimeters to 1.2 meters) in water when floods occurred.<\/p>\n
\"In the wet season ... these reservoirs of corrupted water
\noverflow their banks in the lower part of town, and fill the
\nlower stories of the houses, where they leave behind them an
\ninconceivable quantity of slime and filth\" wrote Johan Splinter
\nStavorinus in his book Voyages to the East Indies (1798).<\/p>\n
So frequent was the flooding that only when there were
\nparticularly bad floods did the authorities feel obliged to
\nundertake drainage work, Abeyasekere wrote in her book.<\/p>\n
Prior to the end of the 19th century the development of the
\ncity had never been centralized in any one spot because of
\ndifficulties in finding an ideal location due to marshy land and
\nthe threat of floods.<\/p>\n
Today's Jakarta stretches 661.64 square kilometers across an
\nalluvial lowland on the north coast of West Java, and is criss-
\ncrossed by 13 rivers, both natural and man-made.<\/p>\n
And to this day flooding in the capital remains a chronic
\nproblem, despite thousands of dollars being spent on flood
\ncontrol and the development of technology spanning over 400
\nyears.<\/p>\n
The problem now, as it was hundreds of years ago, is rapid
\npopulation growth, which has outpaced the development of human
\nawareness of the environment.<\/p>\n
Between 1988 and 1992 some 2,753 hectares of agricultural land
\nwere converted into housing estates, and 47 hectares converted
\ninto industrial estates.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time, there used to be 185 small ponds in and
\naround Jakarta, which created a natural catchment for rain water,
\nwith a total area of 1,304 hectares. But they too have had to
\nmake way for \"progress\" and the construction of more concrete
\njungles.<\/p>\n
By 1994 the six natural ponds located in Jakarta had decreased
\nto two, and of the original 122 ponds with a total area of 561
\nhectares in Bogor, West Java, only 316 hectares remained.<\/p>\n
In Bekasi, West Java, only 10 hectares, or five ponds,
\nremained of the original 157 hectares, or 12 ponds, and in
\nTangerang, also in West Java, out of the 1,331 hectares
\ncomprising 45 natural ponds, only 968 remained.<\/p>\n
That was eight years ago, and we can expect that a lot more
\nhas been lost to us in the meantime.<\/p>\n
It is easy to blame the people's habit of throwing waste in
\nthe rivers and clogging the waterways for the annual deluge in
\nthe capital, but it takes two to tango and powerful conglomerates
\nand petty government officials must also shoulder much of the
\nblame.<\/p>\n
The cries of the common people whose houses are inundated each
\nyear may fall on deaf ears, but it is not so easy to dismiss the
\nflooding of the Ir Sedyatmo toll road that grows worse every
\nyear.<\/p>\n
The toll road is the main thoroughfare linking the city to its
\ninternational airport, Soekarno-Hatta, and any imperfections
\nstand out like a sore thumb.<\/p>\n
The Ir Sedyatmo road, built on marshy land, reportedly sunk by
\nas much as 80 centimeters in some sections from its original
\nlevel between the time of its construction in 1985 and 1994,
\ncausing the road to be inundated during floods, a problem which
\nhas become worse in the past two years.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists blame the development of an exclusive
\nresidential complex, Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK), in North Jakarta
\nfor the worsening flooding of the toll road.<\/p>\n
The PIK complex, by noted businessman Ciputra, was built on an
\narea that had been decreed in 1977 as a protected marsh area and
\nnatural reserve.<\/p>\n
But according to Kompas daily, since 1982 the government has
\nviolated its own ministerial decree and contracted businessmen to
\ndevelop and \"improve\" the area. In 1995, president Soeharto
\nissued a decree formalizing the Jakarta Bay project, which covers
\nan area of 2,700 hectares.<\/p>\n
In the past, the area was a haven for more than 60 plant
\nspecies and 2,000 animal species. Its mangrove forest protected
\nthe land from eroding away into the ocean and acted as a filter
\npreventing sea water from penetrating the fresh, and the land's
\nfilth from invading the ocean.<\/p>\n
At the time, environmental groups such as the Indonesian
\nEnvironmental Forum (Walhi) said that the project could upset the
\necological balance of Jakarta's coastline and cause even worse
\nflooding. Among other things, they predicted that the project
\nwould cause flooding on the Ir Sedyatmo toll road.<\/p>\n
However, Ciputra rejected the accusations and even said that
\nhe was ready to face trial should there be environmental problems
\ncaused by the housing project (Kompas, Sept. 14, 1992).<\/p>\n
The 1995 decree was revoked in 1998 by Soeharto's successor,
\nB.J. Habibie, but the damage has been done and instead of a
\nflood-preventing mangrove forest, the area is now a multi-million
\nrupiah housing estate.<\/p>\n
And the poor people are left to drown.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/flooding-a-chronic-problem-in-jakarta-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }