School Walls in Jakarta That Keep Collapsing...

Heavy rain that lashed Jakarta did not only bring flooding but also reopened an old wound: collapsing school walls. On Monday night (4 May 2026), the rear wall of SDN 08 Tebet Barat in South Jakarta collapsed around 10:00 p.m. WIB. The incident occurred while heavy rain was pounding the area. “The wall collapsed due to high rainfall,” said the Head of South Jakarta’s Satpol PP, Nanto Dwi Subekti, when confirmed by Kompas.com on Tuesday (5 May 2026). Until Tuesday morning, officers were still struggling to lift the rubble into sacks. The Head of the South Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Task Force, Kendar, stated that the wall was indeed fragile. “From the assessment results, the building’s age is old and decayed, and the lower part of the wall has been eroded by water,” Kendar explained. The affected area covers five building plots used as a canteen. Several months earlier, a similar incident occurred in another area of South Jakarta. The boundary wall of SMP Negeri 182 in Kalibata, Pancoran, collapsed on Sunday morning (15 February 2026). The 65-metre-long and 5.3-metre-high wall fell towards the school. The Head of DKI Jakarta’s BPBD, Isnawa Aji, said the cause was unstable soil structure. As a result, the drainage was blocked, and the school parking area was covered in rubble.