Floods: Same old story?

The torrential rains that hit parts of Jakarta recently have apparently reminded people that it is time to switch anxieties -- from the scarcity of water due to the drought to the possibility of flooding.

It is reasonable for people in Jakarta to worry about floods, given that the number of areas in the city vulnerable to flooding has increased. The latest records show at least 30,000 hectares of Jakarta's 65,000 hectares of land are at risk of flooding, spread across all five mayoralties.

How, one might ask, could that be since the central government, the city administration and related institutions have been working on flood control systems for decades?

An environmentalist warned in the early 1980s that Jakarta would never be free from flooding because most of the city was lowland.

While nature offers us no choice, Indonesians have gradually managed to ruin their own habitat by, among other things, willfully felling trees in river upstream areas, constructing new buildings in designated as green areas and dumping garbage anywhere they see fit.

The upstream areas of Bogor, Puncak and Cianjur -- all in West Java -- are not as green as they were even as late as the 1970s, due to the uncontrolled building of villas, hotels and other structures in former woodlands and pastures. Mushrooming housing projects are another cause for the denudation of these upstream areas.

Even in Jakarta, people seem not to have learned anything about the danger of flooding. Waterways, gutters and canals have for decades been used as garbage dumps, despite the existence of provincial regulations against the practice.

Sedimentation in most of the 13 rivers flowing through the capital is another serious problem, caused in part by those living along river banks. The daily dumping of garbage in gutters and rivers has had a serious impact on the environment. Look, for example, at the clogged Manggarai River in South Jakarta, where the residents' significant contribution to the danger of flooding is immediately apparent.

Law enforcement appears to be a novel idea among government institutions. Nevertheless, the city administration should draw up reasonable plans to support a flood-control campaign, instead of engaging in such exploits as cutting down trees to make space for statues and proposing the controversial reclamation of Jakarta coastal areas.

The Jakarta administration apparently believes that the Rp 4.5 trillion flood control project, known as Eastern Flood Canal, will be the best formula to free the city from flooding. Meanwhile, though, many are skeptical that the project, which was officially begun in June this year, will be finished as scheduled given the troubled land acquisition process. The fact that only 10 percent of the required land has been acquired means the dream of a flood-free Jakarta will likely remain in the realm of the impossible.

The administration's decision to dredge the city's rivers deserves appreciation. But dredging work on the Ciliwung, Krukut, Cakung, Grogol and Sunter rivers, as well as the Mookervaart canal and two other rivers in Pulomas, East Jakarta, and Pluit, North Jakarta, has just began. The Rp 37 billion project will not free the city from floods, though the work will ease the flow of water in the rivers, and thus minimize overflowing in areas along the waterways.

Residents, therefore, are well advised to be watchful, especially during rainstorms. In such a situation, speedy and accurate warnings and information from the authorities is required. The authorities must not make the same mistakes they made in February this year, when floods submerged many areas, forcing thousands of residents to flee their homes. The flood early warning system did not work, and water-pump operators were not on alert when the flooding began at about midnight.

With rainy days coming, both the authorities and residents must prepare for the worst-case scenario. And again, it is imperative that the authorities encourage neighborhoods to do whatever is necessary to spare themselves the misery that floods can bring. Unless both residents and the authorities are prepared, we are likely to see the same old story repeat itself from year to year.