A matter of vision

In a matter of days the year 2002 will come to an end. For many people the time for merrymaking to celebrate Christmas and New Year is nearing.

However, to many other people living in areas vulnerable to flooding, the coming of the new year is a warning that floods may come at any time, either toward the end of this month -- or some time in January or February next year.

Those living in such areas may already have made preparations, recollecting the flood that claimed around 50 lives and crippled Greater Jakarta's economy early this year.

The Jakarta administration is the official institution that must be held responsible for the flooding. The administration led by Governor Sutiyoso should have taken last February's flood, the biggest in living memory to hit the city, as a very serious warning.

Unfortunately, the governor seems to have accepted last year's flood merely as a natural phenomenon or an act of God. The misappropriation of Rp 4.2 billion collected for February flood victims through a charity night could be cited as an example.

Some people have accused the non-governmental organization (NGO) Ice on Indonesia, which was appointed to manage the money, of embezzling the money.

Police have questioned those who are believed to know where the money went until, finally, Sutiyoso revealed that the Rp 4.2 billion had been spent for educational and health projects, instead of helping the flood victims themselves. He said that while the money from the donors was in the process of being cleared, the city administration had spent at least Rp 225 billion from the city budget to deal with the post-flood problems, including the purchase of books for school children.

The police seem to accept the argument, case closed. No one has raised the question why the Rp 4.2 billion was not used to fund flood control projects despite the fact that the city suffered a total of Rp 400 billion in losses from the flood.

The 20th century saw the capital city swept by big floods in 1942, 1976 and 1996 and the most recent was the 2002 flood. Unfortunately, a comprehensive effort to prevent worse floods from occurring has not been made by the administration.

Heavy downpours have caused inundations in some areas in the last two months, proving that the danger of floods is looming. As the peak of the rainy season, according to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, will occur in January and February next year, all we can do is warn residents to be more alert as there have been no signs that the administration has taken systematic and integrated action to protect them from floods.

The city administration seems to ignore the fact that the city is naturally vulnerable to flooding as 40 percent of the total 65,000 hectares of the capital city lies below sea level.

While the actions taken by the administration have failed to minimize the number of flood-prone areas, the administration will offer contracts to private companies next year to clean and dredge some of the 13 rivers flowing through Greater Jakarta.

The project, scheduled to begin next year, will involve Rp 2.2 trillion in state funds. The question is how to prevent corruption of the project fund by unscrupulous officials.

So far the administration believes that the East Jakarta flood canal project, scheduled to be completed in 2007 is the only solution to the annual city floods. Land acquisition has been cited as the main constraint to the huge project, which will swallow a total of Rp 2.8 trillion. The city administration has complained about the high price of land to be acquired for the project, which will cover 300 hectares.

This strongly indicates that financing is still being put forward as the main constraint. Surprisingly -- again -- Governor Sutiyoso has not shown a strong resolve to seek more money to fund an integrated system to control the floods.

The retired Army lieutenant general has recently been occupied with the project to beautify the National Monument (Monas) square, the capital's landmark. Monas is the face of the capital, therefore, beautifying it is acceptable to some extent.

But spending around Rp 80 billion on the beautification project sounds too much for an administration that is facing myriad more serious problems, including flooding.

Sutiyoso may well be the only Jakarta governor who would prefer to tend to animals than to his residents. He has been very busy trying to actualize his dream of having deer roaming freely in Monas park rather than reducing the number of flood-prone areas.

It is apparently a matter of vision. Sutiyoso prefers to concentrate on Monas rather than on flood control. Given the fact that Sutiyoso rules the city, we have no choice but to live with a governor, who, in his second term of office, is likely to repeat the same mistakes he made during his first tenure.