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Jakarta’s low-income residents suffer most from failed flood mitigation
Underprivileged communities are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather because they reside near riverbanks or in high-density settlements.
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In the same boat: Soldiers help rescue residents from the flood-hit Bojong Indah residential area in West Jakarta earlier this month. Cooperation between the central government and local administrations is key to solving the annual disaster. (JP/Donny Fernando)
R
ecent flooding in Greater Jakarta has shown the harrowing impacts of extreme weather caused by the climate crisis, and the ones who suffer most are people in the low-income bracket, observers say.
“Take a look at the victims of disasters around the world. Most of them are the poor, people who are politically powerless. That is why [flood risks are] ignored. The question is: who should fight for this?” asked Bogor Agricultural University forest policy professor Hariadi Kartodihardjo in a recent panel discussion, when explaining numerous infrastructure failures that led to the ecological crisis in the capital.
The head campaigner for energy and urban issues of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Dwi Sawung, told The Jakarta Post that underprivileged communities were particularly vulnerable to extreme weather because they resided near riverbanks or in high-density settlements.
One of the climate challenges for those communities in a city like Jakarta, Dwi added, would be the difficulty of accessing a decent life.
“Like it or not, they would have to move, but the problem is they have nowhere to go. Meanwhile, middle and upper class residents can simply relocate,” he said.
Esrom Hamonangan Panjaitan of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said Article 28 of the Constitution guaranteed the right to live and the right to a healthy environment. Those rights are infringed upon during climate-induced disasters.
Sustainable land use manager of the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia Adi Pradana said aside from the need to pursue mitigation efforts, the city would have to invest in means of adaptation as well.
