The projects are to be carried out in five locations including in two rivers: the Ciliwung River and the West Flood Canal. The city administration also listed the development of retention ponds and reservoirs as part of flood mitigation efforts.

At least 37 neighborhoods were severely hit by floods last Friday. The floods claimed two lives and displaced thousands as residential areas near riverbanks were submerged by floodwater. Anies had blamed the floods on the runoff in the upstream areas of the capital such as Bogor, which increased the volume of the Ciliwung River.

“One of the sources of flooding comes from upstream. The solution is to build more retention ponds and reservoirs so the river water that flows from upstream to the city can be more controlled,” he said on Thursday at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta.

The city also plans to boost the number of vertical drainage installation systems, or infiltration wells, as well as continue the construction of a sea-dike in North Jakarta to fend off tidal floods.

The Jakarta Water Resources Agency’s official in charge of the naturalization projects, Yose Rizal, said the naturalization was set to be applied to a 500-meter-long section of the Ciliwung River on Jl. Krapu in North Jakarta and to a 600-m-long river bank area of the West Flood Canal in Dukuh Atas. The project for the rivers would cost Rp 56 billion (US$3.9 million).

Naturalization is to also be carried out in three reservoirs, namely the eastern side of South Sunter Reservoir in North Jakarta, Kampung Rambutan Reservoir in East Jakarta and Cimanggis Reservoir in South Jakarta, which would cost Rp 106 billion in total.

Although the projects are still in the tender process, Yose was confident that they would commence by mid-June, particularly for two projects in the aforementioned rivers.

The city aims to naturally restore the function of the rivers by taking the ecological impact into consideration. The project would also transform riverbank areas into public spaces.

The agency’s acting head Yusmada Faizal said the chosen locations were under the administration’s authority, unlike the 13 rivers in Jakarta which were under the authority of the Public Works and Housing Ministry. Still, he stressed that all mitigation measures must be carried out concurrently in order for them to succeed.

The ministry, under its Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BBWSCC) is also set to resume normalization projects for the Ciliwung River as part of the central government’s programs for flood control in Jakarta. The city administration has completed land acquisition for 14.06 hectares along some parts of Ciliwung for the project, which is running at a slow pace as a result of Anies’ reluctance to carry out evictions since he took office in 2017.

BBWSCC head Bambang Hidayah said his office was currently surveying the land to define the length of the normalization. Currently, only 16 kilometers out of a targeted 33.6-km stretch of the river has been normalized.

Experts have advised that a concerted effort involving administrations from peripheral areas was vital to tackle flood problems in Jakarta.

Anies also said his administration had been cooperating with Bogor municipality and Bogor regency in West Java — located upstream from Jakarta — to search for potential locations for water catchment areas.

The administration has granted Rp 10 billion to the Bogor administration to develop a retention pond in Cibuluh, Bogor, the construction of which is expected to commence this year.

In upstream areas of the Ciliwung, the central government’s ongoing development of two dry dams, Sukamahi and Ciawi, both in Bogor, are expected to “delay floods” in Jakarta by reducing the volume in Manggarai sluice gate by 12 percent.

The two dry dams are being developed entirely using the state budget and expected to operate next year. However, land acquisition has been a stumbling block in efforts to accelerate the project.

Another flood mitigation attempt along the Ciliwung River is the development of the 1,270-m-long tunnel from Bidara Cina in East Jakarta that is to link the Ciliwung River to the East Flood Canal. It had only progressed 600 m so far, Bambang said, citing a land dispute with residents over land procurement that had hampered the project.

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