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esidents of Pondok Labu in South Jakarta, whose homes have been inundated for over 10 months, said Sunday that they would file a lawsuit against the Jakarta administration for allegations of lethargy in mitigating floods.

Based on an agreement made between the residents and the city government in December last year, the city had to widen and dredge the Krukut River to prevent it from overflowing. The project should be completed on Jan. 20.

However, Sugiono, head of neighborhood unit 11 at Pondok Labu, said that the residents had yet to see any major improvements on the project.

“It is five days from the deadline. Yet, we haven’t seen much progress,” he said. “The project is not even half completed,” he said.

Considering the city’s poor performance in mitigating the effects of flooding, which has inundated more than 100 homes, Sugiono said that the residents opted for a civil lawsuit.

He said that the residents would be backed up by public lawyers from the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation and the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association.

He also said that several environmental nongovernmental organizations, such as Walhi, would advocate for the residents. “Let’s see the working progress in the next five days. Should we fail to see a major improvement on Jan. 20, we will start taking legal action,” he said.

“The city residents have given enough time,” he said.

The neighborhood unit 11 at Pondok Labu has been inundated for 10 months. In early December, an unexpectedly heavy downpour in Southern Jakarta caused the Krukut River to overflow, flooding dozens of homes and displacing more than 250 families.

Residents blamed the inundation of their neighborhood on the construction of a new shooting range operated by the Indonesian Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps had reclaimed part of Krukut River and its banks, narrowing the flow from a 6- to 2-meter-wide culvert and then constructing a concrete reinforcement over the culvert.

“We expect that the government’s project would bring back the normal width of the river,” Sugiono said.

In the same month, the residents had tried to call for backup from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). The commission followed up the complaint by calling on the Jakarta administration to swiftly mitigate the effects of flooding.

Sugiono said that the inundation had created more than Rp 1 billion (US$110,000) in material loss. “The water has weakened the building structures,” he said. “The continuous inundation was stressful for us. We feel devastated.”

More than a hundred homes are currently under 40 centimeters to 50 centimeters, residents said.

Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation lawyer Edi Halomoan Gurning said that his office was ready to provide a legal assistance for the residents. (lfr)