Habitual flood in Jakarta

Sat, 02/16/2008 12:42 PM  |  Reader's Forum

Having been born in Batavia (Jakarta), I have seen Jakarta grow from a "big village" to a "metropolitan city". Even in the early 1960s, you still saw vast stretches of forests, rice fields, marshes and swampy areas in Central Jakarta. There used to be streams and rivulets crisscrossing the city.

The Ciliwung River, which traverses Jl. Hayam Wuruk and Jl. Gajah Mada in downtown Jakarta, was a place where women washed their laundry and children -- like myself -- engaged in kampong-style swimming. The calm waters flowed steadily toward the sea and we never heard of such terms as "pollution."

Another stream I used to play in was the one which now runs adjacent to Trisakti University. A tributary of the Banjir Kanal River, the stream connected to Pesing. Much to my chagrin, this stream, along with other similar ones, has now been "plugged up" to make way for highways. In a similar move, many marshy and swampy areas in Jakarta were eliminated for the construction of residential areas and other structures.

About 32 years ago, Pak Sumadi of TVRI interviewed then governor of Jakarta Pak Ali Sadikin about the recurrent floods which annually hit Jakarta. Pak Sadikin said the problem was "what used to be the abodes of frogs (bangkong) have all been wiped away to make way for human habitation...". That was in 1976. So it goes. For all our engineering knowledge and superior technology you would think that by the 21st century we could solve this problem.

When will we learn our lesson?

TATU FUAD MAULANI
Jakarta

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