Jakarta Budget Heavy on Flood Mitigation Efforts

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta government said it will focus its 2020 revised budget on pushing flood mitigation efforts, such as providing land for optimizing the capacity of rivers and reservoirs, procuring mobile pumps, and improving pumping stations.

“In 2021, the Jakarta provincial administration has plans to construct a pump system in polder design (for flood control),” Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan told journalists at the Jakarta Legislative Assembly on Friday.

Next year, the Jakarta provincial administration plans to construct crossing channels and a giant sea wall to resolve the problem of flooding in the Indonesian capital city, he said.

"These all will be carried out in both multi-year and single-year (projects),” Baswedan informed.

Meanwhile, head of the Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda), Nasrudin Djoko Surjono, said the revised budget of the Jakarta provincial administration for this year has allocated Rp1.8 trillion in flood mitigation funds.

Jakarta's flood mitigation funds for 2021 would touch Rp4 trillion, he informed.

The provincial government is focusing its flood mitigation efforts in nine areas, including constructing vertical drainages, revitalizing the Ciliwung River in Pasar Baru area, as well as flood analysis and supporting information system, he added.

Floods have posed serious challenges for Jakarta governors and their administrations over the past few decades.

On October 5, 2020, for instance, more than 1,200 residents of East Jakarta's Kebon Pala area were affected by flooding after the Ciliwung River overflowed following torrential rains in Bogor, West Java.

The floodwaters reached a height of over 1.5 meters before they began receding around 7:30 a.m. local time, according to Jhony, 41, a resident of Kebon Pala.

The Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) had reported on October 4, 2020 that the water level in the Sunter Hulu River had touched 300 centimeters, which was much higher than its normal height of 150 centimeters.

The downpour in Bogor, West Java province, had led to an increase in the water volume of Sunter Hulu River at its meeting point with Ciliwung River in Kebon Pala, Kampung Melayu neighborhood, Jatinegara sub-district, according to the agency.

Head of the Kampung Melayu neighborhood, Setiawan, said the flooding had affected about 1,264 residents of the Kebon Pala residential areas of RW04, RW05, RW06, RW07, and RW08.

"The floodwaters arose from Bogor, with our residents in RW04 bearing the maximum brunt as the floodwaters (in the area) reached a height of more than 1.5 meters," Setiawan informed.

Early this year, flash floods, triggered by high-intensity rainfall over several days, had swamped several parts of 17 sub-districts of Jakarta as well as many other sub-districts in the capital city's metropolitan areas, including Bekasi and Bogor.

At least 46 people lost their lives in the floods, which also compelled 173,064 people residing in the Greater Jakarta areas to shift to safer ground, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

Also Read: Jakarta Braces for Flood as City Rivers Cannot Contain Excess Water

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