Freeing Jakarta of floods

Freeing Jakarta of floods

When the sky above Jakarta becomes overcast, the authorities and residents alike traditionally start calculating which parts of the sprawling city will be inundated. But this kind of reaction to the perennial problem of flooding in the capital is no longer relevant. Today people should be asking: "How many new areas will flood this time?"

It seems that no matter what is done, disaster inevitably strikes and new directives are issued on how to tackle the problem of flooding. Over the years, the government has improved and raised many roads and built flood control systems designed to prevent the inundation of vulnerable areas. Yet, now we finding ourselves asking once again: "Just what is going wrong with all the efforts?"

The floods keep coming in increasingly devastating ways, submerging more areas, even Jl. MH Thamrin, the city's main thoroughfare, and the most prestigious of the capital's modern residential areas. Floods disrupt the service of thousands of telephone connections and power stations and bring chaos to flight schedules. Residential areas in Central Jakarta, the very seat of the central and municipal governments, are threatened, adding to the already long list of flood-prone areas.

To free Jakarta from floods is a truly herculean job requiring a huge budget. The government has built some flood control systems, with the biggest one in Cideng, Central Jakarta, but the current disaster proves that those efforts are far from adequate. Meanwhile, the municipal administration continues to complain about the lack of a budget to build more.

The causes of Jakarta floods are various. Among others there are the silting up of the Ciliwung river, which traverses the city, the diminishing area of water catchments, the rapid increase in the population, unpredictable climatic changes and the waters which rush down upon Jakarta during heavy rains in the mountainous areas of West Java.

This is not to mention the manmade roots of calamity such as uncontrolled seizure of empty land in peripheral areas by squatters and the allocation of land at many strategic points in the heart of the city to business interests.

The first is made possible by the ineffectiveness of government agencies on the district level and the second by the egoistic attitude among certain power holders who seemingly do not care much about the public's wellbeing.

There is no longer any way we can go on ignoring the naked reality that compared to the other capital cities in Southeast Asia, Jakarta has the smallest area of parks and water catchments. For this reason, Jakarta's citizens can expect more floods in the future.

If the floods cannot be prevented, there are many things which the municipal administration should do to reduce the impact of the disasters. The plan to broaden the Ciliwung river from 20 meters to 60 meters should be implemented as soon as possible. And not only should the river be widened, it should be dredged from the point where it enters the city to its very mouth. Only this will prevent the immense amount of water pouring down from the clouds above and the mountains at a distance from rising over the banks into the homes and businesses of Jakarta's populace. In addition to this, the drainage canals crisscrossing the capital should be dredged as well.

And because floods cause major crises in the nation's air communications system owing to the delay of flights and the stranding of passengers at the Soekarno-Hatta airport, the authorities should also start helicopter transportation services into the city. This will assure that the businesspeople, tourists and other travelers coming into the country through the capital will have an alternative to paying the unbelievable fees the taxi drivers charge during the rainy season because they have to crawl through the city at a snail's pace owing to flooding.