Bengawan Solo Tributaries Overflow, Floods Hit Sukoharjo-Solo

Heavy rain that struck the Solo Raya region in Central Java from Tuesday (14/4) night until Wednesday (15/4) early morning caused several tributaries of the Bengawan Solo River in the area to overflow.

As a result, flooding affected the city of Surakarta or Solo and Sukoharjo Regency.

Flooding in Solo

DetikJateng reported that at least nine sub-districts in Solo were inundated following heavy rain since last night.

The Solo City Government stated that the flooding was caused by the overflow of Kali Jenes, one of the Bengawan Solo’s tributaries.

Based on a rapid assessment report until Wednesday (15/4) at 00:02 WIB, water began entering residents’ settlements in several sub-districts.

“The affected areas include several sub-districts with varying heights, including up to adult waist level in some places, and 80-120 centimetres in others,” said Solo’s Basarnas Public Relations Officer, Aditya, in the early hours of Wednesday.

According to Basarnas data, the flood-affected sub-districts include Pajang, Joyosuran, Tipes, Joyontakan, Bumi, Sondakan, Kratonan, and Panularan. Several residents were evacuated to shelters.

“The cause is heavy rain around Solo Raya that lasted a long time, resulting in ponding floods at several locations,” he said.

The Solo City Government (Pemkot) explained that the flooding in nine sub-districts was due to the lack of embankments or dykes along the Kali Jenes flow.

“Yes, there are still parts along the Jenes River flow that have not been dyked, without embankments, and all of them were affected by the flood,” said Solo’s Regional Secretary (Sekda), Budi Murtono, in Tipes, Serengan, on Wednesday afternoon.

Flood heights varied, with some reaching around 1.5 metres.

“Yes, quite high, last night some were knee-deep, others chest-deep. It’s already (subsiding) almost all average now. This was due to the high water intensity last night. Now that it’s starting to drop, it’s subsiding, but we have to anticipate the coming days,” he said.

Budi Murtono stated that he would communicate with the Bengawan Solo River Basin Centre (BBWS).

“Let’s discuss this again with BBWS regarding follow-up handling, what the embankment construction will be like,” he explained.

Flooding in Sukoharjo

Several areas in Sukoharjo Regency were affected by flooding due to the overflow of Bengawan Solo tributaries caused by rain since Tuesday afternoon. Floods inundated roads, and in several spots, water entered residents’ homes.

One of them was in Grogol Sub-district. Grogol’s Sub-district Head, Herdis Kurnia Wijaya, said the affected villages include Manang, Sanggrahan, Banaran, Cemani, Gedangan, and Lenganharjo. The flooding occurred because several tributaries could not accommodate the water discharge, such as Kali Mranggen, Kali Kembang, the irrigation canal in front of RS dr. Oen, and Kali Jenes.

“Water height up to around 30 centimetres, just overflowing. If anyone evacuates, it’s to their neighbour’s house. If the Bengawan Solo River condition is safe, this is overflow from the west,” said Herdis on Tuesday, quoted from DetikJateng.

Around 10:53 WIB this afternoon, at least 14 villages in four sub-districts of Sukoharjo Regency were affected by flooding. The four sub-districts are Grogol, Baki, Gatak, and Kartasura. Some residents were forced to evacuate.

From Sukoharjo Regency BPBD data, the flood-affected villages in Grogol Sub-district are Manang, Lenganharjo, Madegondo, Sanggrahan, Kwarasan, Gadingan, Cemani, and Banaran. In Baki Sub-district, the affected villages are Gentan, Baki Pandeyan, Manuran, and Jetis.

In Gatak Sub-district, flooding occurred in Blimbing, Gatak, Klaseman, Kagokan, Sanggung, Luwang, and Mayang villages. In Kartasura Sub-district, flooding occurred in Jatis Village.

Sukoharjo BPBD’s Acting Head, Ariyanto Mulyatmojo, said the flooding was due to heavy rain lasting 10 hours, from 18:00 to 04:00 WIB.

“Residents’ houses were flooded in 14 villages. Schools flooded are in Grogol and Baki Sub-districts,” Ariyanto told the media on Wednesday afternoon.

Due to this flooding, traffic on Jalan Ir Soekarno from Sukoharjo towards Solo was severely congested. Severe congestion occurred in the Solo Baru commercial area, causing many workers to be late.

Additionally, several schools were closed due to the flooding.

Bengawan Solo on red alert

This afternoon, the Bengawan Solo River’s water discharge rose significantly to red alert status around 13:42 WIB. From monitoring of the Water Level (TMA), the river surface height reached 85.13 metres above sea level.

The guard at Jebres 3 pump house, Robertus Sugeng Sarwono, explained that the status upgrade from yellow alert to red alert occurred quite significantly since…

According to Robertus, the red alert condition lasted quite a while until the afternoon.

“Until 13:00 WIB (red alert). But now it’s starting to decrease, starting to subside a bit,” he continued at the location, quoted from DetikJateng.

The drastic rise in water volume in Java’s longest river was caused by a combination of extreme weather factors. In addition to high rainfall in the Solo Raya region since last night, inflows from upstream tributaries worsened the situation.

Meanwhile, volunteer from Solo’s Gorong-Gorong Team, Joko Widodo alias Bang Toyib, stated that the water discharge began to decrease since 11:00 WIB.