Flood Response

THERE is a fitting Malay poem that portrays the chaotic response to the recent flooding in Bekasi, Bogor and Jakarta: “It’s like a person searching for leaves, but not looking for the roots.”

Every time there is flooding, the public sees extensive publicity about officials crying over the environmental damage, clearing garbage out of gutters and distributing barely adequate assistance. But there is no attempt to identify the root causes of the flooding, yet alone find a permanent solution: from changes to land use on riverbanks to Jakarta Bay becoming increasingly shallow as a result of reckless development.

The intensive rain that fell across Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabodetabek) led to flash floods on Tuesday, March 4. This time, Bekasi, a satellite city of Jakarta, experienced the most serious flooding.

According to a report from the Bekasi Disaster Mitigation Agency, water in the Bekasi River reached a height of 875 centimeters. The normal level is 350 centimeters. The Bekasi government was paralyzed because eight out of 12 subdistricts were flooded.

When there is already flooding and homes in Bekasi and Bogor are submerged up to their roofs, it is too late for mitigation. The central and regional governments hastily took action as if this was a sudden disaster occurring for the first time. But everybody knows that Jakarta and the surrounding areas have experienced frequent floods since 1621.

Damage to the upstream areas of the Ciliwung, Cikeas and Cileungsi rivers was a fatal combination that turned downstream areas in Bekasi, Bogor and Jakarta into lakes. In the early days of March, 19 million cubic meters of water flowed down these three rivers. The area worst affected by the flooding was the meeting point of these rivers.

Improper conversion of forest land around Puncak, West Java, has continued for decades. The change of land function over the last two or three years is the main cause of repeated flooding.

This magazine discovered that the flooding was triggered by the change in function of 1,600 hectares of land owned by Perkebunan Nusantara I and Sumber Sari Bumi Pakuan located in the upstream area of the Ciliwung River. In this region, 33 companies are working on a 305-hectare area building property projects. Two of them are Hibisc Fantasy, a tourist destination being developed by Jaswita Lestari Jaya, which is owned by the West Jakarta government, and Eiger Adventure Land.

Damage upstream leads to destruction downstream. There have also been land use changes in the estuary, with disruption to the flow of rivers through Bekasi, Bogor and Jakarta. Many riverbanks have been turned into residential areas. And strangely, in a number of river basins, the control of land by individuals has been legitimized through ownership or building use certificates.

From the policy aspect, the root cause is Law No. 11/2020 on Job Creation—a sweeping regulation that puts investment above everything while ignoring environmental carrying capacity. This law is the cause of disasters because it is used by the government to change regional spatial planning, which is the basis for regional land use changes.

Before the Job Creation Law, the process for changing spatial planning was laid down in detail, and provided an opportunity for public participation. Now the process has been streamlined and centralized. Under the pretext of promoting economic activity, the central and regional governments arbitrarily grant permits for land use changes and the conversion of water catchment areas in the Puncak region.

The Job Creation Law has also contributed to downstream damage by removing the obligation for the government to preserve 30 percent forest cover for river basins. Without this minimum requirement, river basins have lost their ability to absorb water, resulting in surrounding areas being flooded as rivers are unable to absorb water resulting from intensive rainfall.

This repeated flooding can only be prevented by addressing every component of the problem. Trying to attract sympathy through cheap social media content is a technique used by leaders who lack ideas and who are only thinking of themselves.