Seasonal flooding? No big deal, many Jakarta folk are used to it

Seasonal flooding? No big deal, many Jakarta folk are used to it

Hundreds of houses in the densely populated Pulo Gadung
subdistrict in East Jakarta find themselves under water every
year. During the rainy season, the Sunter River overflows and
water floods the area, which is dominated by migrants from East
and Central Java.

Suparman, 40, who originally comes from Central Java and now
live near the police housing complex in Pulo Gadung, said water
had been entering his house every year since he moved there 15
years ago.

"Not a single year goes by without flooding during the rainy
season. The last was extraordinary, with the water level reaching
half-way up the house," Suparman, who is an employee at a private
company on Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta, recalled.

"Usually, the water level is only about knee-high," he added.

It is hardly surprising that the area is plagued by floods.
The Sunter River, which flows from Pulo Gadung to the Jakarta Bay
in Tanjung Priok, is choked with garbage. Both banks of the river
have been concreted over and are covered with houses. The result
is that the river is unable to accommodate the huge amounts of
water that flow through it during the rainy season, causing the
annual floods.

The river originates about 120 meters above sea level in the
hilly area near Cibinong, Bogor regency, West Java. So during the
rainy season the water overflows the river's banks in the
downstream areas, causing floods in several subdistricts in East
and North Jakarta, including Pulo Gadung, Kelapa Gading Barat,
Kelapa Gading Timur, Rawa Badak, Koja and Lagoa.

The floods are caused not only by the runoff from a number of
small rivers and canals that end in the Sunter River, but also
from the runoff from the hilly areas around Bogor.

"What we fear is heavy rain in Bogor, because that means it is
almost certain the water will come into our houses," Suparman
told The Jakarta Post recently.

In Lagoa subdistrict, flooding is not only caused by the
overflowing Sunter River but also by the flow of water from the
sea, particularly during high tide with a full moon. Severe
flooding occurs when the peak of the rainy season coincides with
high tide and the full moon.

The 39.5-kilometer long Sunter river flows northward in
parallel with the Cipinang River, and has some 73 square
kilometers of catchment area. It is among those rivers in the
city whose runoff should have been reduced by the delayed Eastern
Flood Canal project, which was originally designed in the 1970s.

The Sunter River collects runoff from Cipinang River, the
Cipinang Baru drain, the Rawamangun drain, the Pemuda drain, the
Utan Kayu drain and the Pulo Mas drain.

The Sunter River flows through the autonomous territories of
Bogor regency, Bekasi regency and Jakarta.

In Bogor, the river flows through a number of villages,
including Cilangkap, Tapos, Sukatani, Jatikarya and Harjamukti,
while in Bekasi it passes through Jatikarya, Jati Sampurna,
Jatirangon, Jatimurni, Jatiwarna and Jatirahayu.

The river enters Jakarta starting from Pondok Rangon, to
Cilangkap, Bambu Apus, Setu, Lubang Buaya, Halim Perdanakusuma,
Cipinang Melayu, Pondok Labu, Cipinang Muara, Klender, Cipinang,
Jatinegara Kaum, Jati and Pulo Gadung.

Shanties and semipermanent houses crowd the riverbanks from
Pulo Gadung up to Klenders, where thousands of houses are
inundated every year during the rainy season.

But if you visited Sunter River today near the Klender and
Cipinang Muara subdistricts, you might see dozens of children
playing in the riverbed, with the water only about 10 centimeter
deep. And along several parts of the river the bed is completely
dry.

This is in sharp contrast to the rainy season, when the raging
water yearly bursts its banks and floods thousands of houses near
the river.

During the latest flooding in January and February, floodwater
from the river reached the roofs of houses in the Klender
subdistrict and the Duren Sawit district, forcing thousands of
people to flee their homes.

"Now you can see the riverbed, but during the rainy season the
houses here, particularly those close to the river, are always
inundated," said Hendra, 33, a resident of Klender subdistrict.

Hendra, who has been living in Klender since he was a child,
said flooding in the subdistrict had gotten consistently worse
since the early 1990s because of the continuous silting up of the
Sunter River. --Bambang Nurbianto