Coping with floods
Coping with floods
A week after the worst floods in living memory swamped large sections of Jakarta last weekend, it seems that the repercussions of the disaster continue to preoccupy the Indonesian capital city. It seems that everybody, from the Minister of Environment down to city officials and concerned citizens are offering ideas on how the city's flood problems should be managed in future.
Undoubtedly the most noteworthy of these proposals is the plan put forward by Governor Surjadi Soedirdja last week to broaden the Ciliwung riverbank. In the first stage, as reported by the newspaper Kompas earlier this week, the plan calls for a widening of 800 meters of riverbank along a densely populated stretch in Kampung Melayu in eastern Jakarta. From its present average width of 20 meters the riverbank along this particular location will be widened to 60 meters. Eventually, the project will be extended to other areas along the Ciliwung and other rivers passing through the city.
Although a span of 800 meters to begin with may not sound like much, we believe the plan is worth mulling over because it addresses one of the key factors contributing to Jakarta's flood problem. Many experts have since long warned that uncontrolled construction along Jakarta's rivers -- of which the Ciliwung is the biggest and most important -- will eventually lead to disasters such as flooding, or contamination with poisonous waste. Thus there can be no doubt that the plan is, in itself, laudable. The big question is, will it work?
Clearing Jakarta's crowded riverbanks is a truly gigantic task which will have not only social but also political consequences. The costs involved will be tremendous. It will necessitate the relocation of tens if not hundreds of thousands of families, not all of which can be expected to be poor and without influence. And this operation would be unlikely to make the administration overly popular among the hundreds of thousands of people affected.
No less important a question is whether merely relocating people and clearing the riverbanks will help to rid Jakarta of its' perennial floods. The problem is that Jakarta's rivers are fed by streams which have their origin in the mountainous hinterland of West Java, where overpopulation and crowded riverbanks present the same problem as in Jakarta. In addition, the upstream reaches of the rivers that flow through Jakarta are gradually losing their function as water catchment areas due to uncontrolled construction.
Thus, although clearing the overcrowded riverbanks in the city will certainly help the problem to a certain degree, the problem itself will persist as long as uncontrolled land use in the upstream areas continues. Schemes can be devised to improve cooperation between the authorities in Jakarta and in neighboring West Java. But, again, the big question is: can the current pattern of unrestrained construction in those areas be brought under control?
Sadly, evidence so far has shown that the answer is no. For years the authorities in West Java have threatened to tear down villas in the Puncak highlands, that are not covered by proper building permits. In spite of this, as we can see, building continues despite the fact that in the Puncak area new construction is supposed to be prohibited or at least subject to stringent controls. To this end, a special decree was issued by President Soeharto to place the development of the Puncak area under the supervision of the Minister of Environment.
In essence, we believe the Jakarta city administration is on the right track by stating its' determination to deal with the overcrowding of the city's riverbanks "consistently and without bargaining". Certainly the plan deserves our wholehearted support. What we would like to see now is the authorities proving themselves as good as their word this time and pursuing the scheme with inflexible integrity. Only then will it stand a chance of success -- if not in eliminating the flood problem in Jakarta, then at least making it less of a nightmare next time around.