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ohani, 61, recalled her disbelief when she described the collapse of the Kali Pulo River embankment in Jati Padang subdistrict, South Jakarta, on Sunday evening.

The embankment, located right next to her house on the bank of the connecting river, was unable to hold the rising levels of water after a heavy downpour the previous day, leading to floods that inundated dozens of houses.

“I have been living here for 28 years, but it was the first time I experienced something like that. I am very traumatized and shocked,” Rohani told The Jakarta Post recently, adding that she had taken refuge in a friend’s house in the meantime.

She said she had heard cracking sounds from the 5-meter-long embankment, located in neighborhood unit (RT) 04 of community unit (RW) 06, before the water started to gush into the residential area, breaking through the embankment and inundating dozens of houses.

A 20-m-long wall owned by a resident living near the embankment had also collapsed. The floodwater reached up to 110 centimeters high and had receded by Monday morning.

“Hopefully a permanent embankment can be built soon,” Rohani said.

The embankment broke as it could not contain the unusual volume of water coming from the upstream. The temporary embankment was constructed in 2014 using sandbags by the residents themselves. No maintenance has ever been carried out at the embankment, RT 4 head Syamsuri said.

“We made it ourselves while waiting for the city administration to build the permanent one. Thanks to the collapse, the construction of the permanent embankment will be accelerated,” he said.

The South Jakarta Water Resource Agency had built a makeshift embankment by piling up sandbags wedged with dolken wood. The agency would build a permanent embankment soon, head of the agency Holi Susanto told the Post.

The recent collapse of the embankment was not the first to happen in Jati Padang subdistrict.

Previously, a temporary embankment made of sandbags collapsed, flooding almost all the houses in a community unit in 2017. A 35-m-long permanent embankment was built only after the flood.

The collapse of — or even absence of — river embankments has become a frequent cause of flooding in the capital.

Thirteen rivers and their dozens of tributaries, as well as 1,169 conduit rivers flow through the city, where semipermanent residential areas can be found on the banks of these rivers.

Heavy rain, as well as water flowing from upstream areas, such as Bogor in West Java, means rising water levels are likely during the rainy season, which falls between November and March.

Similar cases could be found in other parts of the city, such as the collapsed Kali Baru embankment in Condet subdistrict, East Jakarta and the damaged Kampung Luar Batang embankment in Penjaringan district, North Jakarta in 2017.

A man died following the collapse of the Pondok Labu embankment in Cilandak district, South Jakarta in 2016, after he was reportedly trapped in a building during the flood.

The year 2013 saw the city’s biggest flood following the collapse of the West Flood Canal embankment in Menteng district, Central Jakarta.

The collapsed embankment was also made independently by residents.

Water inundated the city’s main thoroughfares as well as the Presidential Palace, Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and luxury houses in Menteng subdistrict, killing at least 20 people.

The city administration had allocated at least Rp 367 billion (US$26 million) for the construction of river infrastructure and at least another Rp 78 billion for the maintenance of its western, middle and eastern drainage systems in the 2018 city budget.

The head of the city’s water resource agency, Teguh Hendrawan, said the construction of embankments in the city was commencing in stages as it would have to cover a wide extension of the areas, considering the many rivers flowing through the city.

At least two embankments spanning 987 m were built while 39 embankments were repaired in 2017, according to the agency. The number was down from the 8 embankments built in 2016.

Teguh said semipermanent residential areas inhibited the riverbanks, some of which were even built on top of the rivers. The residential areas were a major obstacle to the construction of embankments, he added.

“If the land is clean and clear, we will construct the embankments at 13 rivers and 1,169 conduit rivers. We are building them right now,” Teguh said. (ars)