JP/5/YULI

Floods haunt residents in southern Bandung for years

Yuli Tri Suwarni The Jakarta Post/Bandung

Suhanda, 55, a resident of Bojong Citepus hamlet, Dayeuhkolot district in Bandung, is certainly an unfortunate man. Suhanda, whose house is located near the Citarum River, has become accustomed to annual floods. He cannot afford to raise the floor of his house, thus it is regularly deluged by floodwaters.

"It's inconceivable that a year would pass without flooding occurring, even if it's only three or four days in a year," said Suhanda, a casual worker at a textile factory near Cisirung.

Head of Administrative Unit No. 9 in the Bojong Citepus hamlet, Cangkuang Wetan subdistrict, Lili Suhaeli, said that around 300 households in the subdistrict were subject to the annual floods.

Lili said area residents reasoned that the Citarum River, the largest river in West Java, was to blame as it had silted up. It could no longer carry away heavy rainfall flowing from higher ground, much of which has now been denuded of vegetation.

Top soil had been eroded away by water that flowed into the river, filling it with mud and trash. As the river could no longer carry the high volumes of water from sudden heavy rains, it would overflow areas along its banks.

Dayeuhkolot is the lowest area in the Bandung basin. In 1809, then regent of Bandung regency, R.A. Wiranatakusumah II, along with his people, moved from Dayeuhkolot (formerly known as Krapyak), the then-capital of Bandung regency.

They relocated en masse from Krapyak, some 11 kilometers to the south of Bandung city, as they considered it insufficiently strategic as an administrative center, being prone to floods during rainy seasons.

Dayeuhkolot district spokesman, Inen, said that three villages of Bojong Citepus, Citepus and Bojong in Dayeuhkolot and Pasawahan districts, were vulnerable to slow-receding floods.

The government has established a special institution, the Citarum Flood Management Project, to curb the problem of floods in southern Bandung areas.

Satisfactory results have already been noticed in several areas such as Baleendah and Bojongsoang, previously flood-prone areas, where flooding no longer occurs. But such was not the case for Dayeuhkolot residents, said Inen.

Restoration works on the Citarum River, funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, have been going on since 1997.

Silt dredging and renovation works have been carried out at 11 locations along the Citarum River, and eight locations at its two tributaries, the Cisangkuy and the Cikeruh Rivers.

But the public remains skeptical about whether the project, which ends this year, will be worthwhile because they are still affected by floods.

"The head of the project, Arung Samudro, had once indicated that floods would still occur in Dayeuhkolot on completion of the project," said Inen.

To survive the floods, residents were provided with two emergency shelters by the provincial administration. But the shelters were apparently of little help because the 3-meter buildings -- that are able to accommodate 400 people -- stood in the middle of a flood-prone area, the Bojong Citepus village.

"Residents have to find boats to reach the shelters," said Inen.

Earlier this year, the Bandung regental council put forward a motion to relocate residents from the flood-prone area, but they rejected it. Inen said that 60 percent of the residents worked in the hundreds of factories located in the area.

"We are used to the floods. They will only last for a week. The moment the floods recede, we can live normally again. Moreover, the new place may not be near here. I'll have to pay for transportation if I live far from here," said Suhanda.