Govt urged to improve public participation in tackling floods
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The central government and city administration were urged on Monday to improve residents' participation in dealing with the possible upcoming floods and not to concentrate solely on expensive prevention measures.
Constructing infrastructure for flood prevention requires a lot of money and needs a long period of time, while the government does not have enough money to build such infrastructure.
Participants at a public discussion held by the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education and Information (LP3ES) at its office on Jl. S. Parman, West Jakarta said that residents had not been given sufficient information on how to prepare for the floods.
"City officials have repeatedly said that there have been numerous simulations on flood evacuation procedures but we have not participated in any of them," said Nani Amalia of a non- governmental organization assisting residents in the Cipinang area, East Jakarta.
"I think such simulations are very important so all residents know exactly what to do when there is a flood," she added.
Nina, however, admitted that certain government agencies had helped Cipinang residents to improve environmental conditions.
"We borrowed an excavator to dredge the main canal from the Ciliwung-Cisadane River Project and garbage trucks from the Jakarta Sanitation Agency to transport the sludge," she said.
"Actually we had planned to clean the river but not earlier than March due to the budget flow."
Jakarta is bracing for another flood by February after suffering a great flood early last year which affected most places in the city.
The city administration was criticized for its failure to respond to the flood or to warn residents.
An LP3ES researcher, Irfan Maryono, said residents had to be prepared for the floods whether the government was ready or not.
"That's why the presence of an early warning system is very important to warn the people in the path of the floodwaters to be ready."
Currently, an informal early warning system established by the Manggarai floodgate keepers with local community leaders is in operation.
An official from the Jakarta Public Works Agency, Wisnu Subagio also said that the city administration had established such a system in a more integrated way.
"There is already a crisis center to handle floods in the city.
"This center can quickly send equipment and human resources to flooded areas."
Irfan, however, criticized the top-down approach used by the city administration in handling the crisis center.
"It should be a bottom-up approach in which the residents are allowed to name their needs in case of flood.
"But I guess bureaucracy just cannot work that way."
Meanwhile, head of the hydrology subdirectorate at the settlement and regional infrastructure ministry, Sutadi, told the participants that Jakarta would never be free from floods.
"In fact, there is not a single country in the world that is flood-free according to the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).
"Jakarta is flat in term of its geography and topography. Some 40 percent of its area is located below the average level of high tide," he said in a prepared paper.
Sutadi also pointed to the fact that many parts of Jakarta were rawa or swampy areas as shown by place names such as Rawamangun and Rawa Belong.
"The increase in the number residents means that these swampy areas had to be reclaimed.
"The number of small lakes has reduced from 216 in 1940 to 154 in 1994 due to reclamation activities."