If you live or work anywhere within the Greater Jakarta Metro Area, you know all about yesterday’s widespread flooding throughout the capital since, at best, it ruined your commute home and, at worst, it left you up to your waist in murky waters as you tried to forge a path through it.
One of the many distressing aspects of yesterday’s flooding is that it was caused by just one hour of heavy downpour. Although the rainfall during that hour was categorized as “extreme” in some areas, as Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of data and information at the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) pointed out in a tweet this morning, the amount of rain that caused such widespread flooding in Jakarta yesterday was far less than the amount required to trigger flooding in the past.
Hujan deras yang menyebabkan banjir/genangan di Jakarta pada 11/12/2017 ternyata jauh lebih kecil dibandingkan hujan yang pernah menyebabkan Jakarta banjir besar. Hujan di Pasar Minggu pada 10/2/1996 = 300 mm/hari, di Ciledug 1/2/2007 = 340 mm/hari. Kemarin hanya 83 mm saja. pic.twitter.com/XNoHNtHXNt
— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) December 11, 2017
“Heavy rain that caused floods / puddles in Jakarta on 11/12/2017 was much smaller than the rain that once caused Jakarta to flood. Rain on Pasar Minggu on 10/2/1996 = 300 mm / day, in Ciledug 1/2/2007 = 340 mm / day. Yesterday it was only 83 mm.”
As we noted yesterday, this is the first real test of recently inaugurated Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and Vice Governor Sandiaga Uno’s preparedness and response to Jakarta’s annual flooding. And, frankly speaking, the way they handled yesterday’s crisis doesn’t fill us with a ton of confidence for how they’ll handle the next one.
One of the most flooded areas of the city was the Dukuh Atas underpass in Menteng, Central Jakarta, which reached up to 1 meter high. Anies visited the area and was supposedly angered to learn that water pumps in the area that were meant to displace flood waters were broken. When he asked Mulyadi, one of the pump operators, how long they had been broken, Mulyadi said they had been offline since October 22 but that nobody had responded to his reports and fixed them.
The governor told reporters that those responsible for not fixing the pump would be punished accordingly. “We will act firmly against anyone who does not respond quickly to flood issues, will be dealt with firmly,” Anies said at the pump station as quoted by Kompas.
We’d just like to point out that it was Anies’ predecessor, former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama who helped set up and expand the capital’s current water pump system as part of his comprehensive flood prevention strategy. He also did things like instruct government agencies to make sure the pumps were working before potential weather emergencies, as he did in anticipation of La Nina last year.
That is in contrast to one of Vice Governor Sandiaga Uno’s explanations for yesterday’s flooding, which is that is was due to a “weather anomaly” caused by climate change so they couldn’t have predicted it (although he also mentioned that he had read a book about climate change and totally knew about how it can cause extreme weather changes).
@TMCPoldaMetro landmark deket BNI 46 banjir. Mohon hati2 ya pic.twitter.com/USAsw4yBbt
— Rusdy Razak (@razakrusdy) December 11, 2017
“I can predict that this is a weather cycle is going to causes enormous changes. So, our future may no longer be as usual, we have to prepare an action plan, prepare for the worst,” Sandiaga said as quoted by Tribun.
But Sandi also said that yesterday’s rain was just a natural phenomenon that we should accept. “We can not fight nature, it is wrong to fight nature. Do not say this is receding or flooding just like that, this is a natural phenomenon,” he said as quoted by Liputan 6.
He also said, “Allah again sends rain.If we had a good system, then the rain should be a blessing for us,” referring to his idea that the capital should have a way of capturing rainwater for uses such as drinking.
As for the numerous fallen trees throughout the city, Sandiaga said that the government had wanted to cut down many of the trees that were prone to falling down or that had been ravaged by termites but…
Pohon tumbang depan hotel mulia senayan 14:10 pic.twitter.com/8xTlkCwgS4
— rizki arrisyantoro (@RizkiArri) December 11, 2017
“The problem is that we received a lot of resistance from the community who want the trees to be saved,” he said, also as quoted by Liputan 6. (Tsk, tsk, the powerful tree-loving lobby of Jakarta once against preventing the government from doing it’s job…)
It is perhaps unfair to expect any new administration to be totally prepared for Jakarta’s massive flooding problem (even though it is an annual problem, caused by the annual rainy season). And, to be more fair, there have not been extensive flooding throughout Jakarta in the last few years (mainly due to the work of Ahok’s administration, but also less heavy rainfall in general) so flood prevention strategy was not exactly a major talking point of the Anies-Sandi campaign.
But one last thing we’ll note about Ahok is that, rather than blaming nature or other people when flooding did happen under his watch, he humbly apologized to the people who were affected. We’ve yet to see Anies or Sandi do anything similar.
Brien says
The reasons and resolutions have been discussed 30+ years ago. Deforestation upriver, including the areas where Ex-Governor Sutiyoso has his holiday house in a restricted forest.