The rich who have to live with the floods

The rich who have to live with the floods

By Maria Andi

JAKARTA (JP): In Jakarta, home to at least nine million
people, floods have become as familiar as old friends to families
who live in areas which are submerged once or twice a year.

Contrary to popular belief, families living in such areas
are not only those on low incomes, living in makeshift shanties
along riverbanks, but also those who have large houses and
middle-class cars.

Some 5,000 residents live in the area along the one-kilometer
long Jl. Otto Iskandar Dinata (Otista), known as Bidara Cina, in
East Jakarta. Jl. Otista is around 500 meters away from the
Ciliwung river.

The owners and managers of houses, restaurants, travel agents,
car show rooms and shops in the busy area are not deterred by
floods, up to 1.5 meters, deep that occur once or twice a year.

One local neighborhood chief, Yahya Ali, told The Jakarta Post
that many people keep living in the area despite the annual
floods because the area is considered a strategic location for
them to do their daily business.

Yahya, who works for the state-owned oil company Pertamina,
has a beautiful, spacious house and large car. He is typical of
the middle-class families living in the area. Most of his
neighbors also have large houses and cars.

Unlike squatters, who have no other places to live in but
riverbanks, people like Yahya are able to afford other houses in
flood-free areas.

"Yes, most of the people here own other houses in flood-free
areas in Jakarta. But we prefer staying here, because we think
the area is very strategic for our business," Yahya said.

He said flood usually hits the area in December, January and
February.

According to the city administration's data, Bidara Cina is
one of 80 flood-prone locations in Jakarta.

Yahya said that water from the upper stream in Depok or Bogor,
West Java, usually causes the flooding in Bidara Cina.

Having lived in the area since 1970, Yahya and his neighbors
claim to be familiar with the weather. They say they know when a
flood will come, how big it will be and how to cope with it.

For this reason, their houses, like other houses in other
parts of the city, are well furnished.

They always check the level of the Ciliwung river water at the
flood control stations in Depok, some 35.5 kilometers south of
the city, and Manggarai in South Jakarta.

The January flood was the worst he had ever experienced. The
2.8 meter deep water submerged the area. "In some areas water was
30 cm higher than the second floor of the houses," Yahya said.

The flood was really abnormal. "I used to be able to tell
people about the coming flood," he said. "But in January
everything was out of hand."

The water level kept on rising and reached 1.5 meters deep. "I
lost contact with the Depok flood control station as the
telephone line was suddenly cut off."

"We had already moved the car to our neighbor's garage which
is located higher than ours, but the water kept rising and it
quickly became too late to move it out of the area," he said.

The car, as befell other cars in the neighborhood, gradually
disappeared together with many houses.

For Yahya, this year's floods have caused losses of Rp 6
million. He had to spend Rp 1,250,000 on the renovation of the
house alone. "I had to dump some of my belongings, including
furniture, which were irreparably damaged," he said.

Saleh Atista, the marketing manager for a car dealer, whose
show room is located on Jl. Otista, said he had not been aware of
the annual floods until local people informed him after he had
established good relations with them.

The five-year-old show room, with 10 cars on display everyday,
is going to remain where it is, "because the area is very
strategic for the business," Saleh said.

"Once we are informed there will be flood, we move the sedans
to other area." He added that cars which are structurally high,
like pickups, remain in the show room.

Each car needs minor repairs after a flood, and the car dealer
spends between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1 million on each car per year.

Herniti, who lives in a densely-populated neighborhood in
Grogol has a different story. The 36-year-old mother of two,
whose husband works at a local market, said the family had no
other place to live. She was born in the house she now lives in
with her family.

Close to the Grogol river, the residential area is flooded
annually, but this year's flood in January was the worst she can
remember.

In anticipation of the yearly flood the families in the
neighborhood, including Herniti's, do not want to buy expensive
furniture.

She said she could not calculate how much money her family
spends annually on cleaning the house and repairing damaged
belongings.

Asked if she has a plan to quit the flood-prone area, she
merely said, "We would move to another area and buy expensive
furniture if we had the money," she said, pointing to a set of
bamboo chairs, two small wooden beds and one cupboard and a small
TV which she said were easy to move.