Residents keep their heads above water

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When heavy rain pounded the city earlier this week, many Jakarta residents groaned about the long traffic jams and the wait for taxis.

For some families, however, it's a daily struggle to keep their heads above water.

Flooding is nothing unusual for low-income families living alongside Jakarta's main river, the Ciliwung, in Jatinegara and in Kampung Melayu.

It's such a regular occurrence that one resident described it as "like having a leak in the roof" for other people.

Families living in semipermanent houses along Jakarta's rivers have learned special skills to deal with the "wet" days. They also say that their years of facing floods has given them immunity to many of the diseases, such as diarrhea, that occur because of flooding.

Inside their typically humid and dark homes, there is rarely any heavy furniture like cupboards, consoles or kitchen sets to be found, as the residents know that they would be difficult to move when the next inundation comes.

On the riverbank in densely populated Bidara Cina, Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, 51-year-old Acip, a toy hawker, has lived for more than 15 years with his wife and three children.

His house, made of cement and plywood, is without decoration or colorful wall paint, although there are telltale watermarks. Five people live inside the building which is divided into three rooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bedroom.

And the bathroom?

"We bathe and wash clothes in the river. There's a public bathroom nearby, so no need to worry," Acip said.

On Wednesday, his house was inundated with water to a depth of almost 30 centimeters after an incessant downpour. The television and three mattresses were already tied up together, plastic utensils were packed in big buckets and boxes of books and documents were also placed out of harm's way.

"I'd rather not go to work in such an uncertain situation. A flood may come anytime," Acip said, adding that he usually left home early in the morning.

"These are all we have. We must be ready just in case the big flood hits. Alhamdullilah (Thank God), today's flood isn't so high."

His daughter's books got wet when she dawdled when her parents told her to pack her belongings. "But we can dry them later," Acip remarked.

Not far from Bidara Cina, a native Jakartan, Mutiara, 45, has lived in her wooden shack in Bukit Duri subdistrict in Jatinegara for almost five years. A widow with two sons, Mutiara, sells gado-gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce) for a living.

She knows only too well the dangers of flooding.

"The worst thing is when our things get washed away. If we're lucky, our belongings only get wet. That's normal," she said matter-of-factly.

But there are no documents, not even her children's school certificates, left now as all were swept away in a massive flood in early 1996, believed to have been the worst to have hit the capital in modern times.

"I was still living in a kampong (local neighborhood) at that time. I sold the house after the flood and erected this building later," she recalled.

While other residents of the capital only have to deal with flooding during the rainy season, it can affect her family at any time of the year.

"If there is a downpour for more than one hour, it will surely flood here. But we are all accustomed to it," she said.

The floods, she added, had taught her the really important things in life.

"Nothing's more important than saving our own skins I have learned," Mutiara said. "Why? Because savings, valuables and other things are all lost in the floods," she said.

Household garbage tossed into the river is said to be the main cause of the Ciliwung frequently bursting its banks, but other factors, including misappropriation of land, also contribute to the capital's water woes.

Acip and Mutiara, like hundreds of their neighbors, say they have no choice but to set up home along the riverbank, even though it violates city regulations and their presence, officials say, actually contributes to the flooding problem.

They argue they have a right to live there because they have ID cards and pay their taxes and electricity bills.

While their homes are humble and flooding may strike at any moment, for them it is still the place where they can be together with their families.

"I deal with it. I steel myself and prepare the best I can because the floods are coming more and more often here on the riverbank," Mutiara said.