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.