TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said the giant sea wall project was not the only solution to coping with floods. He said the Netherland’s most populated city was still grappling with high tides despite being barricaded with a 2.2-meter-tall sea wall.

“We are focusing more on how to develop a green city in Rotterdam,” the mayor said at the City Hall on Monday, September 23, 2013 after signing a cooperation treaty on Jakarta-Rotterdam flood mitigation. The green city concept seeks to create extensive outdoor, green spaces for water infiltration.

Aside from the sea wall, Rotterdam is also equipped with the Maeslantkering giant floodgate. Using a steel frame structure measuring 210 meters in length and 22 meters in height, the floodgate functions to block high tides from the sea. However, the operation of both the seawall and floodgate is costly and does not require the involvement of the society, whereas people’s participation in the green city program was necessary.

“We ask the people of Rotterdam to design their homes in a certain way that they can contain rainwater,” he said. The mayor said he learned how to design homes on riverbanks in Hamburg, Germany.

The mayor said he also issued a controversial regulation of replacing asphalt on the streets with soil so they could absorb water on rainy days. “The bottom line is the people should be involved in the efforts to deal with floods.”

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo said the city administration was still discussing the giant sea wall project with the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and he could not confirm yet as to when the project would kick off. The capital had many plans, he said, but none had been realized.

SYAILENDRA