The Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) is offering the city a solution for its long-standing flood problem by building underground reservoirs using Japanese technology.

JICA and the Public Works Ministry are currently in talks with the administrations of Jakarta and Bogor, West Java, on developing the reservoirs using the “Cross-Wave” system developed by the Sekisui Chemical Co. of Japan.

Jakarta lacks the green space to develop water rainwater catchments, which the Cross-Wave system solves by using special polypropylene sheets and channeling devices to line underground reservoirs instead of river stones, as is typically done in existing catchments. The Cross-Wave reservoirs can hold rainwater that would otherwise be discharged into rivers.

The JICA claimed the Cross-Wave system could be used to easily create underground reservoirs. The polypropyle...