A comprehensive plan needed to prevent flood
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Almost all city officials concerned with flooding have realized that without an integrated program, Jakarta, 40 percent of whose total 24,000 square kilometers is low-lying land, can never be free from the dangers of flooding.
The integrated program should include the construction of flood canals at the city's northern coastal area, the development of flood control facilities and the clearance of illegal squatter dwellings and garbage, both of which form obstructions to flood control infrastructure.
Such a condition has been known about since the 1900s, when the country was still colonized by the Netherlands which, at that time, had planned to build flood canals in the northern coastal areas of the city.
Then in 1973, the government asked an Amsterdam-based consultant, Nedesco, to produce a grand design to free the city from the threat of flooding.
The government now wants to implement the design and it has asked the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to review it.
According to the design, flooding in the city can be avoided by developing two main canals, namely the West and East Flood Canals. These would serve to drain all of the city's 13 large rivers that flow toward Jakarta Bay through the northern coastal areas of the city.
When completed, the two canals would form a semicircle from the western part of North Jakarta to the eastern part of East Jakarta in the city's northern coastal area, which is mostly low- lying land.
They will carry all the water from the 13 rivers and then channel it into the sea in Jakarta Bay using pumps.
The West Canal, 17 kilometers long, was developed by the Dutch in the 1900s, with its sluice at Manggarai, South Jakarta, and was completed in 1918. But the width of the channel has been narrowed considerably, disrupting the flow of water through it.
The East Canal has yet to be constructed. This project has been on and off since the design was first produced in 1973.
Recently, however, the government seemed to be serious about restarting the project. The City Public Works Agency pledged that construction of the East Canal, which would require Rp 1.3 trillion (US$130 million), should be started this year.
"We hope that the project can be completed within five years," chief of the agency IGKG Suena, once said.
The canal will run for 23 kilometers from the D.I. Panjaitan, Cipinang, Buaran, Pondok Kopi and Cakung areas (all in East Jakarta) to Marunda beach in North Jakarta.
Last year, the administration cleared three hectares of land, worth Rp 40 billion, for the project's development. For its first stage this year it needs some 230 hectares of land to build the 100-meter-wide canal.
The agency expected to secure 40 percent of the 230 hectares of land from housing complex developers in East Jakarta, who have yet to offer their land as an obligation for public and social facilities.
But flooding problems will not be solved completely should the construction of the East Canal be completed. There are still other problems that the city administration should address.
These include the development of floodways or main drains to serve the city's small rivers in low-lying areas and the freeing of all the facilities, including flood canals, from illegal squatters and buildings, which tend to reduce their width and cause obstructions.