City told to come up with comprehensive flood plan
City told to come up with comprehensive flood plan
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Flooding has hit Jakarta since the 17th century but its
government has never learned the lesson and instead allowed the
situation to deteriorate every year, experts said.
Speaking at a discussion on flooding within a historical
perspective organized by the culture and tourism development
agency, the speakers predicted that flooding in the city would
still be an acute problem in the years ahead as no significant
action had been taken to resolve it.
Adolf Heuken, an expert on Jakarta from the Cipta Loka Caraka
Foundation, said that the flooding had been worsened by the
uncontrolled development in the city.
"The developments of buildings and other concrete structures
has taken place in an uncontrolled fashion, with violations of
land use policy in the city becoming the norm, as if the
development of the city had never been planned," he said.
"We see that development in Jakarta has not been based on a
master plan. If there is a master plan, it is useless as it is
frequently ignored," he said.
He did not mention specific examples of master plan
violations, but several experts have cited a number of commercial
and residential developments, such as Hotel Mulia Senayan,
Central Jakarta, Taman Anggrek shopping center and condominium,
Grogol, West Jakarta, and Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK), North Jakarta
as the worst offenders.
Heuken also criticized the government, which always blamed
financial limitations for the slow development of the city's
flood prevention infrastructure, saying the city would have
adequate funds to construct the infrastructure if the money was
not misappropriated.
One of the flood prevention facilities long delayed is the
Eastern Flood Canal. Its feasibility study was carried out in
1973 by Netherlands Engineering Consultants (NEDECO) but it has
still not yet been constructed.
Other speakers at the discussion were environmental policy
consultant at the office of the State Ministry of the Environment
Tjuk Kuswartojo; expert on Betawi culture Ridwan Saidi and Rudi
Tambunan of the City Planning Agency.
Sharing Heuken's opinion, Kuswartojo said that the worsening
floods in the city were due to the city administration's failure
to control building development. "Weak law enforcement has caused
continual violations of the city master plan," he said.
Saidi, who viewed the flooding problem from a cultural
perspective, criticized the city administration, which always
blamed nature for its failure to resolve flooding problems in the
city.
He stressed that the city administration's failure to uphold
the law had significantly contributed to the worsening floods in
the city.
He added that weak law enforcement had resulted in the
occupation of riverbanks and other forbidden areas in the city by
illegal squatters, and the unlawful development of buildings by
developers.
He also expressed concern over other violations by real estate
developers, who took small lakes and swampy areas in the northern
part of the city as development sites for housing complexes.
"The city authorities manipulate history by saying that
flooding has occurred since the time of Noah when they try to
shirk their responsibility over their failure to resolve the
problem," he added.
Kuswartojo stressed that the government ought to deal with the
city's flooding problem comprehensively, as the annual natural
disaster had caused misery to hundreds of thousands of citizens,
mostly poor people.
Such comprehensive efforts ought to include conservation at
upstream areas, maintenance of rivers and drainage, commitment to
land-use policies, firm law enforcement and participation in
decision-making by all people in the city.