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.