Jakartans will have to fight flooding on their own this year
Jakartans will have to fight flooding on their own this year
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Controversy is still raging over predictions
that the La Nia weather phenomenon will cause massive flooding
in Jakarta. But with or without La Nia, the city will surely be
inundated during the rainy season.
Floods are not a new phenomenon for Jakarta residents. Every
year, parts of the city are affected, causing thousands of people
to suffer.
"We're getting used to floods," said Safri, who has been
living close to the Ciliwung River in Kampung Melayu, East
Jakarta, for eight years.
Safri said his house usually flooded between December and
February every year. But this year, it was also inundated in May.
Before the flooding strikes, he usually takes all his
valuables to his brother's house, which is safer than his. But in
May he was caught unaware and consequently suffered greatly.
"I could not save all my belongings, including my only sewing
machine, because it happened at night," said the father of three
who works as a tailor in Blok M, South Jakarta.
Many people are facing the same ordeal and this year's
situation might well be worse than ever because Jakarta Governor
Sutiyoso has admitted he is helpless to deal with the floods.
He recently said a shortage of funds prevented the
administration from taking necessary measures, such as river
dredging and waterway diversions, to reduce the threat of
flooding. At present, he said, the administration was only able
to help flood victims by preparing rescue teams and equipment. He
further urged Jakartans to be 'mentally prepared'.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has warned that La Nia
could intensify flooding in the city during the rainy season.
It also predicted the problems could be worse than in 1996,
when the city's worst-ever flood killed at least 30 people and
caused more than Rp 90 billion (US$9.9 million) in losses.
But Hidayat Pawitan, a lecturer at the Bogor Agriculture
Institute's School of Geophysics and Meteorology, said the
effects of the La Nia phenomenon, in the form of heavier rains,
happened only during the dry season, while during the rainy
season, the impacts of La Nia were usually offset by the
domination of the monsoon.
But controversy will not help solve the problems as torrential
rains have been soaking many parts of Jakarta in the last few
days.
Environmental activists say the administration could, however,
do more to prevent the annual floods instead of preparing to help
more victims if it stuck to existing regulations.
At present, some water catchment areas, such as those in South
Jakarta, have been developed into office buildings, shopping
centers or residential complexes even though such moves violate
the capital's urban plan.
Floods could also be minimized if greater efforts were made to
control construction by large-scale developers in the river basin
area.
Activists say flooding could be reduced by creating or
maintaining sufficient open areas and lakes to absorb water run-
off.
The administration, however, attributes the floods to, among
other things, the city's geography. It said that 40 percent of
the city's 6,500 square kilometers are on low-lying land, leaving
about 106 areas, ranging from individual streets to subdistricts,
prone to flooding.
Noted urban planner Mohammad Danisworo of the Bandung
Institute of Technology (ITB) acknowledged that 13 rivers flowed
into the area long before it became a metropolitan city. These
rivers took water from the West Java mountains out to the sea.
But it only in the 1970s, when unplanned construction
mushroomed in a bid to create the image of Jakarta being the
country's capital and more people moved in, that the land started
to lose its ability to absorb surface water, he said.
The land's ability to absorb surface water was essential to
minimize flooding.
But Danisworo believed the problems were not only rooted in
bad planning because even then the capital had regulations, for
example the city plan, to control development.
"It's also a matter of weak (law) enforcement," Danisworo, the
chairman of ITB's center for urban design studies, told The
Jakarta Post.
He said that little action was being taken against delinquent
developers who built in supposedly protected water catchment
areas, or riverbank squatters whose shanties are blamed for
obstructing flood control projects.
Danisworo suggested the administration take the present crisis
as a blessing in disguise because it gave more time to think
about future development policies as most projects had been
halted due to the crisis.
Most development in the city was based only on physical
considerations, such as people's demand for more houses, without
considering environmental aspects.
He said the administration should identify which areas could
be inhabited or compel developers to build tunnels below their
projects to enable water to flow out to the sea.
The tunnels, he said, would reduce flooding as most of the
city's land was no longer able to absorb surface water.
Unfortunately, such tunnels were not built because they were very
expensive.
"So it's no wonder that there's flooding in a short time
whenever the rains come because the land no longer has the
ability to absorb water and no manmade facilities (tunnels) are
available," Danisworo said.
He suggested that the administration develop a regional plan
involving authorities across Greater Jakarta and to deforest
areas along rivers.
"Jakarta won't be able to solve its flood problems without the
regional plan," he said.
Projects
For years, many projects have been planed and huge amounts of
money have been allocated for flood-control projects.
After severe flooding in February 1996, the city allotted Rp
121 billion out of its 1997/1998 budget for flood-control
projects, compared to Rp 15 billion the previous fiscal year.
The city's public works agency was also in charge of widen
rivers in the city, particularly the Cideng, Grogol, Angke Bawah,
Ciliwung-Gunung Sahari and Ciliwung-Kota in West Jakarta.
The National Development Planning Board set aside Rp 12
billion from its 1996/1997 budget for flood-control projects in
Greater Jakarta, including for dredging, widening and cleaning
the city's 13 garbage-filled rivers.
The Ciliwung-Cisadane project office under the Ministry of
Public Works has dredged the Angke, Muara Karang, Sunter and
Ciliwung rivers.
Plans were also drawn up to construct a one-kilometer-long and
20-meter-deep tunnel in Bogor, West Java, to divert some of
Ciliwung's water to the Cisadane River and to continue the
construction of the Rp 1 trillion eastern flood canal project to
prevent the Cipinang river from overflowing.
But in the wake of the monetary crisis, most of the plans and
ongoing projects were halted.