Flooding in Jakarta Displaces Thousands Amid Continuing Rain

People walk though flooded streets at Jatinegara Barat on Jan. 18 in Jakarta.

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Torrential rains that have continued in Jakarta in recent days widened the number of flooded areas on Sunday, forcing at least 20,000 people to evacuate their homes over the weekend.

The first significant flooding of the rainy season hit the capital of nine million people last week. Since then at least five people have died from drowning or electrocution and two others have succumbed to illness resulting from the floods, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

Mr. Sutopo said on Sunday that flooding has affected more than 48,000 people in Jakarta and increased the number oF displaced. At least 31,000 people are currently taking refuge at temporary shelters built by the authorities, municipal buildings, schools or mosques.

The floods pose a major challenge to popular governor Joko Widodo, who took office in October 2012 and has promised to tackle annual flooding and traffic, two of the biggest problems facing the city.

Last year heavy rains caused a river to break its bank, sending a torrent of water into the center of Jakarta. The flooding that resulted killed at least 11 people, forced 20,000 from their homes and was estimated to cause around $700 million in damages to property and losses incurred by companies whose operations were obstructed.

Most of the neighborhoods hit by the current floods are slum areas crowded along the banks of the many rivers that run through the city. In some places flood waters from overflowing rivers have reached as high as one meter.

On Saturday, local television stations showed many families wading through murky water with their belongings held over their heads. In some neighborhoods people have used makeshift boats to escape the rising flood waters. City search and rescue authorities have also dispatched rescue teams with rubber dinghies to assist evacuees.

Jakarta’s main commercial centers have so far not seen major flooding, unlike last year. But the flooding could expand further in the days ahead, with moderate to heavy rainfall expected in Jakarta on Sunday and Monday, said Mr. Sutopo.

Flooding is a perennial problem in sprawling Jakarta, the political and economic heart of Southeast Asia’s largest economy.  Along with inadequate infrastructure and worsening traffic – the result of an increase in vehicle purchases by Indonesia’s fast-growing middle class – flooding poses risks to efforts to attract capital and reduce logistical bottlenecks that interfere with business.

Mr. Widodo has made some progress on meeting his flood-reduction promises. Over the past year he has managed to relocate thousands of illegal settlers away from the city’s riverbanks. He has also torn down unlicensed shops built along the rivers without major resistance. The city has begun dredging many waterways and reservoirs to allow rainwater to more easily run out to sea, while the construction of an emergency flood canal is expected to start later this year.

But experts warn that expecting quick results is unrealistic, since putting an end to the flooding will require a substantial redesign of existing infrastructure. Much of the flooding in the city is caused by construction that leaves little room for water run-off.

Jakarta isn’t the only part of Indonesia to be hit by torrential rains this month. Last week, the northern part of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island suffered from flash floods and landslides that killed at least 18 people and displaced around 40,000 – around 36,000 have since returned home, said the disaster mitigation agency. It says low pressure areas above the southern waters of the Philippines and northern Australia are partly to blame for the ongoing rains.

Our  Opinion

Main causes of flood in Jakarta are high rainfall intensity over Ciliwung river catchment; rising sea levels especially during a full moon; more buildings being built both in Jakarta and Puncak resort areas; more groundwater being pumped out, residents of Jakarta continue to throw garbage in rivers, reducing the capacity of the rivers to contain rainwater; more wetlands being drained, filled in and had buildings and impenetrable roads built on them; rainwater being little chance to infiltrate the soil to recharge groundwater; and also combination of two or more of the above factors.  In my opinion, the above solutions are sound technical one but less non technical solutions. Jakarta can be freed from flooding if only if land owner mindset is changed. people of Jakarta and its peripheral areas (JABODETABEK) think that it will be no matter for every land owner to let rainfall running off his/her lands and what happens after consecutive long and high rainfall during the rainy season? Rainfall searches its own flow courses to run toward lower land areas. Hence, accumulation of people mindsets to let go rainfall from their land area produces floods.

The government should have taken preventive measures to prevent flooding by above combined technical and non-technical approaches. Additional to the above solutions, technical solutions may include already in place establishing east and west canals, detention and retention pool development. The non technical solutions may contain one household-one bunker, one per cell land owner-one bunker, one-household-one recharge well, rainfall taped tank-policies, also more land should be allocated for green spaces; wetlands and streams should be restored, the use of groundwater should be prohibited or at least severely restricted and permits for large building construction must be restricted to reduce flooding.

More than one million households, land owners, buildings, and roads are in Jakarta. Many important business centers, embassies and government offices are located in Jakarta, including the presidential palace. Great economic, political and cultural assets are at stake. Should these owners pay attention to runoff over their own lands/yards, significant reducing runoff will result in flooding while imported runoff from the upper part of the catchment should be mitigated by Bogor, Depok , Tangerang, and Bekasi local governments to do the same as local government of Jakarta does. If we fail to prevent this environmental catastrophe, we will suffer tremendous economic, political and cultural losses. Ten or even 20 years from now is not long or we will be bound to experience a more calamity as we are experiencing it now.