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