TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo lamented the large number of residential buildings built along riverbanks which are subject to flooding on an annual basis. He also complained about how this spatial planning problem has missed the supervision of regional officials.

“I often see this in the field,” said the President in the national disaster mitigation coordination meeting on March 2, which was attended by regional leaders.

Jokowi insists that officials must consider disaster risks in their development and investment planning that clearly establishes which areas must be free from any man-made buildings.

The problem of illegal settlements on riverbanks or River Basin Areas (DAS) proves to be a chronic problem. On January 2022, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) recorded 1,839 disasters throughout 2022, or 51.8 percent of the total 3,545 disasters nationally, from the western tip to the eastern tip of Java.

Walhi assesses that the high number of disasters on Java Island is not only due to natural factors, but rather a combination of the impacts of climate change, spatial planning mismanagement, mega-infrastructure, and spatial control political economy.

At that time, the East Java Walhi highlighted the upstream area of the Brantas watershed, namely Batu City, which they deemed to have completely chaotic spatial planning. Protected areas are converted into hotels, artificial tourism, and other uses.

Meanwhile, in Surabaya, the expansion of luxury housing to suburban areas such as West and East Surabaya by large corporations has resulted in the disappearance of water catchment areas such as the conversion of reservoirs and mangroves.

"The increase in the incidence of disasters and the increase in the vulnerability of cities has resulted in an increase in the impact and an expansion of the area affected by the disaster," said Wahyu Eka from Walhi East Java.

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