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.