TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Doni Monardo, strongly believes the over-extraction of groundwater is the main cause of the widespread floods across the capital city of Jakarta.

“The over-extraction of groundwater has pretty significantly sunk Jakarta and contributed to the floods,” said Doni in Jakarta on February 25.

He compares this phenomenon to the past two-to-three decades, which he claims the metropolitan city’s grounds remain above sea levels unlike today’s data showing Jakarta sinking and that “The over-extraction of groundwater has contributed to the sinking.”

The BNPB Head argues that this caused the city’s ground levels to sit lower than sea levels and does not enable water to escape to the sea.

Doni also blames the floods due to less-than-effective drainage systems that are worsened by poor waste management. “Based on data for the past seven months, a number of rivers in Jakarta and Bekasi are filled by garbage,” he said.

Due to the aforementioned issues, Doni is aware that this complex problem cannot be blamed on one state-agency but must involve massive collective effort from the Jakarta residents. He says solutions such as reinvigorating Jakarta’s vegetation, mainly in coastal areas, which is still needed to mitigate flooding issues in Indonesia’s capital city.

ANTARA