siswoko, flood management in jakarta

Proceedings of the 1st AUN/SEED-Net Regional Conference on Natural Disaster Yogyakarta, 22-23 January 2014

FLOOD MANAGEMENT IN JAKARTA

Siswoko SastrodihardjoFormer Director General of Water Resources Management, Ministry of Public Works, Republic of Indonesia (May 2005-July 2007); Former Chair of Southeast Asia GWP (2007-2010); email: [email protected]

Abstract:

Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, has developed mostly in flood plain. Annual damages caused by floods and inundation keeps on increasing. Implemented efforts can not meet the rising problems. The completed and on-going physical/structural measures are in the form of flood control and urban drainage systems. They are constructed for certain capacity, not for absolute protection. Non structural measures which lies in public domain is still limited, due to lack of community understanding about risks of living in flood-plain.

In relation to the big flood occurred in mid January 2013, the government is presently preparing physical measures to make Jakarta free of floods. Apart from doubts regarding the feasibility, the activities show that the government is still relying on structural measures.

Floods are phenomena which can never be fully controlled. Structural measures tend to create a false sense of security in the population protected by the works.Therefore it is required to shift from flood control paradigm to integrated flood management (IFM) paradigm, a combination between structural and non structural measures, emphazising public participation. National Policy to contain water related disasters as stipulated in Law No.7/2004 on Water Resources have been in line with the new paradigm.

Keywords: “Jakarta; flood management; structural measures; nonstructural measures; paradigm shift”.

1. INTRODUCTION

Jakarta that used to be named Batavia has grown and developed in the flood-plain of Ciliwung river. The city keeps developing and nowadays approximately 50% of Jakarta area is in the flood-plain of 13 rivers including Ciliwung river. Since founded, almost every year Jakarta has flood and flood inundation everywhere, and it has been done a lot of efforts to overcome the problems since hundreds years ago, by building various physical infrastructures that have been done mainly by the government.Flood inundation that’s occurred in Jakarta can be caused by the overflow of river, tidal water from the sea, and the obstructed local rainfall flow to the drain and river. Besides triggered by the development of flood-plain into city areas such as luxurious settlements, five-star hotels, malls, and other public infrastructures that are not adaptable and anticipatable to the possibility of flood inundation; flood problems in Jakarta are worsened by the land subsidence, rising of the sea level because of the global warming, climate change, watershed deterioration, solid wastes, lack

of people awareness, and insufficient operation and maintenance of existing infrastructures. Real estates, luxurious hotels, shopping complexes, business centers, and luxurious housing complexes also all city infrastructures in Jakarta that are flooded between January-February in 1996, 2002, 2007, and 2013 all are located in the flood-plain.The flood in 1996, 2002, 2007, and the last one in January 2013, showed that the disaster and loss because of the flood keep increasing, and the physical efforts that have been built are not enough to reduce moreover to clear up the problems. Related to that problems, government has launched various physical infrastructure development programs to fulfill people expectation, so Jakarta can be free of flood and flood inundation. The measures include Multipurpose Deep Tunnel (MPDT), diversion/interconnection Ciliwung-East Flood Canal (EFC) , Ciawi Dam and the Great Sea Wall (GSW) Project.

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Yogyakarta, 22-23 January 2014 Proceedings of the 1st AUN/SEED-Net Regional Conference on Natural Disaster

2. THE CAUSES OF FLOOD PROBLEM IN JAKARTA

Flood problem in Jakarta is generated by some factors either static behavior of the nature ( approximately 50% of Jakarta area is located in flood-plain of 13 rivers); and the dynamic behavior of the nature ( high rainfall and the backwater from the high tide of the sea). The non-natural causes are related to people activities such as :

a) The limitation of infrastructures maintenancePhysical infrastructure for controlling the flood and the city drains that have been built are not operated and maintained well. So, the rivers and the drains are filled with sediment and solid waste. As a result the flow capacity is not according to the plan. A lot of drains are closed by some people, so it is not easy to do the maintenance. Also the pump system sometimes can fail to work even the fuel is not available. Besides the budget for operational and maintenance is limited, the problems occurred also related to government policy which is mainly to prior physical development, also the management of garbage which is still bad plus the lack of guidance and supervision of the people by the government.

b) Land-use planning

The use of upper watershed areas which doesn’t follow spatial plan and also various requirements that have been set such as green open space and infiltration wells, so the amount of flood water that flows to the downstream tends to increase over time. In the downstream, the land-use in the flood-plain areas, up to now hasn’t considered the risk of flood, and hasn’t applied flood-plain management; so various activities by the private, government, and the group of people that have been grown fast increasing the loss when there is flood. The planner including the official of relevant agencies and also the people haven’t understood, although structural measures has already been built, there is still the risk of flood in the flood-plain. Along the river bank has already been built a lot of houses, such as permanent houses, legal, and illegal houses or squatters; so that they narrow the river capacity to flow the flood. Squatters is also built in the reservoir area, such as in Pluit reservoir. The effort to inform the risks to the people, including the management of the development

in the flood-plain that has already been grown is not easy.

c) The urban drainage system The urban drainage system is built to overcome the flood inundation caused by local rain. It is in the form of canal that flows to the river or sea which is planned based on the discharge of 2-5 years flood. If the flow is impossible by gravitation, it can be equipped by polder system, it is in the form of reservoir and pump station which are designed for 25 years flood. The dimension of the existing canals in general can’t accommodate the escalation of discharge because of the fast change of the land use, so the performance of the drainage system is below the standards set. Garbage and sediment along the canal and reservoirs, also obstacles of the flow due to the cross structures and public utilities, reduce the flow capacity of the canal.

d) Land subsidence

Rapid urbanization along with uncontrolled and over-extraction either shallow or deep groundwater, leads to coninuous subsidence of the ground surface especially in the northern part of Jakarta. It’s not only caused by the lack or limited raw water supply, but also the limited of the management and supervision of the groundwater abstraction

e) The limited management, guidance and supervision to the people

The flood peaks and damages may continue to increase mainly because of the humans activities in the upper-watershed and in the flood-plain.The government effort to organize, to guide and supervise for all of the people activities is very weak. So the amount of flood discharge is getting bigger, the lowering of the ground level is worse, and the properties of the people that are threatened by the flood inundation which located in the flood-plain is also increased. On the other hand, the performance of the physical infrastructure is weakening, so the flood problems get worse.

f) The lack of community understanding

The people in the flood-plain and in the watershed have an important role to overcome the flood problems. But the fact, people who especially live in the flood-plain don’t realize it, and have never been explained of the flood

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risk. On the contrary the government by using mass media expose various physical projects plus the target that want to be achieved by using hundreds trillions of rupiahs. The people don’t understand if the physical infrastructure just creates a false protection, and the flood-free condition is only illusion. Related to it, people feel no need to take an active role to overcome the flood problems, because the flood-free condition still can be achieved with the completion of the physical projects that are done by the government. Some terms which are misguided but have been so popular such as flood-free, gifts flooding, return period of flood, etc played important role to mislead the understanding of the people.

g) Emergency response and early warning system

The disasters such as flooding due to dike break don’t occur suddenly, but through the process, such as starting from the overflow, scouring and sliding of the bank, leakage, and piping. For that reason it is necessary for emergency response for flood prevention in the form of various activities of an emergency nature, in order the embankment not to be collapsed. To anticipate the incident, emergency response need to be done supported by flood forecasting and early warning system and walk-through. This efforts that are part of the operation and maintenance activities which carried out in force-account basis, seems not performed in this era, because almost all the water resources management activities including flood management from planning to implementation and maintenance, done by the second party through contracts.

h) The limited coordination

The occurrence of floods and efforts to overcome problems are involving the community and various agencies and regions. Various efforts to overcome the issues of prevention in the form of physical activity, performed by each agency and territory, without a unified plan and are based on a clear division of authority. As well as on efforts to flood prevention/emergency response.

3. EFFORTS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF FLOOD IN JAKARTA UP TO NOW

Various physical infrastructures have been built such as: urban drainage system, polder, pumps, sluice, river improvement, flood-way, and flood dike, which were done mostly by the government since the Dutch era. Urban drainage system was constructed so that the rain water flows smoothly into the canals and rivers; embankment or dike was built to prevent flood in the flood-plain due to overflowing of the river; reservoirs or “situ” and flood-ways were built to reduce flood in the river to overflow into the flood-plain; and channel improvement of the rivers in order to enlarge the capacity so it can reduce the flood in the flood-plain. Various physical infrastructures are designed based on the discharge of a particular flood; drainage system for the return period of 2-5 years of flood, whereas for the flood control system for the return period of 50-100 years of flood.

Although operation and maintenance was done well, the capacity of the various physical infrastructures still have limitations and cannot guarantee a protected flood-plain can be flood-free. For example, if the dike of Ciliwung River was planned to overcome the 100 years flood in the amount of 600 m3/sec, then for every year the chances of a flood equal to or greater than 600 m3/sec is at 1%. As well as the drainage which was planned for 2 years flood, then for every year, the chances of inundation caused by the channel capacity exceeded, is 50%. Therefore every year there is always possibility of flood that excess design flood discharge, so that the flood-plain areas are still prone to flood and inundation. The fact is the operation and maintenance activities are inadequate, so the vulnerability is even greater. Nevertheless there has been no effort to anticipate the flood if it exceeds the design flood discharge, including efforts to suppress the number of the disaster/loss. The loss suffered by the people due to floods is increasing from year to year, indicating that the public has not understood and realized it.

Flood phenomena in 1996, 2002, 2007, and the last in January 2013, showed that the magnitude of the disaster and the loss due to floods still rising. Based on the media coverage, there is a judgment that the problem occurred because of inadequate physical infrastructures that have been built, therefore cannot reduce moreover to overcome the problem completely. In connection with that, the government will soon implement some physical activities at cost of tens to hundreds of trillions rupiahs that are considered "highly effective" to tackle the problem of flooding, and Jakarta is

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expected to be free from flood and inundation. The activities include: diversion/interconnection Ciliwung-EFC; normalization of Pesanggrahan, Angke, Sunter, and Ciliwung; Ciawi dam construction; construction of MPDT, and GSW. Interconnection Ciliwung-EFC, MPDT, and GSW which require relatively very large cost are incidental activities, and not through the feasibility study according to the valid procedures; thus the effectiveness and feasibility as the flood and inundation countermeasures in Jakarta are very doubtful. The idea of developing MPDT just copied from other counties, while GSW seems to imitate what was done in the Netherlands. In a feasibility study prepared in 1996, plan to build Ciawi Dam has been declared unfeasible.Some of the above incidental physical activities, besides not feasible both technically, economically, and environmentally, are intended to overcome the flood due to overflow of rivers and a flood tide from the sea, and has not touched the inundation problems due to the local rain. Nevertheless it has shown that the government is seriously committed to fight all out and extraordinarily against natural phenomena, in order to eliminate the problems of flood in Jakarta.

4. NEED FOR PARADIGM SHIFT IN FLOOD MANAGEMENT

Various physical activities of flood control have been implemented in various countries around the world, are built on a certain design flood discharge and not for the biggest flood (Probable Maximum Flood/PMF), so the chances of a catastrophic flood are still open when the discharge is greater than the design flood discharge. The disaster and loss become larger when people do not understand the performance of the drainage and flood control infrastructure, and do not understand the risks of living in a flood-plain. Various countries around the world have proven that physical activities are powerless to fight against natural phenomenon completely. For example, the United States "got confused" after the Mississippi and Missouri rivers levee that was built for 100 year flood discharge; it fell apart due to the 500 year flood in 1993.

Realizing that physical infrastructures only create pseudo-protection for the people living in the flood plain and cannot change and ensure a flood-free flood-plain, even disasters and losses suffered by the community are greater when there is a flood that exceeds the design flood discharge; hence since the last decade, it has awakened a collective

consciousness of many nations around the world, such as:

a) World Water Forum (WWF) III in Kyoto in 2003 has resulted a mutual agreement that Floods are natural phenomena which can never be fully controlled and so we must learn to live with them. Flood-free conditions are only an illusion. A comprehensive and integrated approach needs to tackle the problem of flood, so that the utilization of the land in the flood-plain can be optimal and disasters/floods can be as small as possible. The overall effort is an innovation of combination of structural /physical and non-structural/non-physical effort, which are based on the people participation.

b) In line with the agreement in that world level forum above, the World Meteorological Organization with the Global Water Partnership (WMO-GWP) have issued a publication on Tools for Integrated Flood Management (IFM). According to them, IFM is a process that promotes an integrated, rather than fragmented approach to flood management. It integrates land and water resources development in a river basin, within the context of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), with a view to maximizing the efficient use of flood-plains and to minimize loss of life. The Effort is a combination of structural and non-structural effort which is an integral part/integrated with the management of water resources in one river basin. Non-structural efforts which include flood-plain management/land-use, by regulating and controlling the development of land in the flood-plain in such a way, so that the amount of loss or disaster when there is flood inundation can be as small as possible; as well as flood proofing and flood fighting which are supported accurately by monitoring and early warning systems.

c) To overcome flood problems, since hundreds years ago the Dutch government has built physical infrastructure of flood control, which included Great Sea Wall and the river embankment, with the level of protection is relatively high (1.000 to 10.000 years flood). Referring to the flood in 1995, the Dutch government realized that the infrastructure has limited capacity and cannot guarantee the flood-plain to be immune to flood. For that reason, in 1998 it has been prepared Rhine Atlas which is a map of flood-plain which is prone to flood, in order to remind the people

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that although there are physical infrastructures of flood control, the people who live in flood-plain should remain alert and aware that they live in the vulnerable region and risky to be flooded.

5. NATIONAL POLICY FOR WATER-RELATED DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Law No. 7/2004 on Water Resources has mandated the need for the integration of all three aspects of water resources management, which includes aspects of conservation, utilization, and control of the destructive force of water. In this case the force of water is included flood. Controlling force of water include the prevention, mitigation and recovery, with the emphasis on prevention and involving the community. Plan arranged in an integrated of pattern as a framework for water resources management in one river basin or river teritory. Prevention efforts include a combination of activities that overall physical activity/structure and non-physical/non-structure, with the emphasis on non-physical activities. Prevention efforts aimed at minimizing disasters/losses and not to prevent 100% the flood problem. Community involvement, especially for non-physical activity is particularly important given since the main source of flooding problems are due to community activities. Therefore, the government needs to make the regulation, guidance, supervision and control, which should indeed be their major task.

National policies in order to overcome the problem of flood in Indonesia were mandated by Law No. 7/2004 on Water Resources, has been in line with the concept of IFM, which is a new paradigm that becomes the world deal.

6. . CONCLUSIONS

6.1 Jakarta is the capital of the Republic of Indonesia which grows and develops in the flood plain which is prone to flood. Flood problems continue to increase in line with population growth, economic growth, environmental degradation and the climate change.

6.2 It’s not only caused by static and dynamic behavior of the nature, but the flood problem mainly caused by various community activities both in the flood-plain and in the watershed that are less or not in line with the efforts to prevent flood problems; it’s as a result of lack of regulation, coaching, supervision and control of the government.

6.3 Various attempts have been made, but still give priority to physical activities or project approach and do not touch the various problems which are mainly caused by human activities. Therefore the problem/loss/catastrophe suffered by people not being reduced.

6.4 To answer the public's obsession to make Jakarta flood free, the government has launched a development program of the physical infrastructures costs hundreds of trillions rupiah, without realizing that any forms of physical activity will only create a false sence of protection, and flood-free condition is an illusion. The Dutch that has built GSW with very high flood control level has also been aware of it and has warned their citizens who live in the flood-plain to remain alert.

6.5 False assumption that Jakarta will be free of flood by the construction of physical infrastructures has also eliminated the public awareness of the risks as well as the adaptation to the possibility of inundation/flood. In addition, efforts to overcome the flood problems are thought to be the responsibility of the government.

6.6 Current paradigm to overcome the flood problems is a win - win solution between natural phenomena with human activities to utilize the flood-plain. The effort is a combination of physical and non-physical activities that are an integral part in the management of water resources in one river basin (integrated flood management) which based on community participation. The target of the efforts is to suppress the amount of loss/disaster caused by flood as small as possible, and cannot eliminate the flooding problem 100 %. A law No.7/2004 mandates on Water Resources Management has been in line with the new paradigm.

7. RECOMENDATIONS.

7.1 Efforts to tackle the problems of flood and inundation in Jakarta should be reviewed and improved by using a new paradigm as mandated by Law No.7/2004 on Water Resources. Efforts made in the form of a combination of physical and non-physical activities as part of the integrated water resource management in Ciliwung-Cisadane Sub River Basin.

7.2. Society and all stakeholders who are involved must implement the new paradigm, and stop dreaming of flood-free condition which is impossible. For that reason, all stakeholders should

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have a distinguished understanding of flood, flood problems and efforts to overcome them. Some terms such as flood-free, gifts flood, flood return period, flood level, etc. that are misguided and misleading, need to be clarified.

7.3. It is necessary to review or audit the existing physical infrastructures regarding: the performance of drainage systems and flood control systems, updating the design flood discharge to anticipate environmental changes and climate change, as well as the anticipation of flood greater than the design flood discharge.

7.4. Physical infrastructures is typically planned to overcome the flood problem to a certain flood level, and should be built based on technical, economic and environmental analysis, with the basis of river basin system; so that the accountability can be justified. Therefore the incidental physical infrastructures that raised with enormous costs, needs to be reviewed. The idea to build a GSW that refer to GSW in Netherlands should be noted that the prevailing paradigm in the Netherlands has already changed.

7.5. To ensure a good performance on the existing drainage systems as well as flood control system (on or under the same discharge conditions with the design flood discharge), the operation and maintenance activities, combined with the early warning and flood fighting, should be carried out properly.

7.6. To suppress the magnitude of the disaster or loss when flood exceeds the design flood discharge, the levee or dike structure which located in urban areas should not be damaged or collapsed due to overtoping.

7.7 Nonphysical activities as public domain, consist of:

a) Utilization of flood-plain for housing, real estate, office buildings, hotels, business districts and other urban infrastructures are adaptive and adjust to the possibility of flood inundation, with flood proofing, restrictions on use of the building, relocation, etc

b) Development in the upper-watershed should follows the rules of spatial planning and proper soil and water conservation, by building infiltration wells, infiltration ponds, etc.

c) Restriction/termination of the use of the ground water to prevent land subsidence in Jakarta

d) Establishment of canals, rivers and reservoirs right of way.

e) Secure the canals, rivers and reservoirs right of way free from either permanent or simple residence.

f) Proper waste management.g) Flood emergency response/flood fighting which

are supported by monitoring and accurate forecasting and early warning system..

7.8 Government should not only build, operate, and maintain the physical infrastructure, but also to carry out their main task in the form of regulation, guidance, supervision and control of all non-physical activities that become public domain. It also facilitates emergency response efforts and forecasting and early warning; facilitate waste management, as well as provide sufficient raw water supply from surface water sources.

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REFERENCES

Firdaus Ali (2012). “Multi Purpose Deep Tunnel (MPDT), An Integrated Solution for Flood Control, RAW Water, Sewerage, Road Tunnel, and Public Utilities Shaft for Jakarta Metropolitan”.

PT. Indra Karya (2011). “Detail Design Floodway Ciliwung – EFC”, Final Report.

Republic of Indonesia, Law No. 7/2004. “Water Resources Management”

Sawarendro (2010). “Sistem Polder & Tanggul Laut, Penanganan Banjir Secara Madani di Jakarta”. ILWI.

Siswoko Sastrodihardjo (2012). “Upaya Mengatasi Masalah Banjir Secara Menyeluruh/Comprehensive Flood Management”, Yayasan Badan Penerbit Pekerjaan Umum, PT Mediatama Saptakarya.

WMO-GWP (March 2008). “A Tool for Integrated Flood Management”, Associated Programme on Flood Management.

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siswoko, flood management in jakarta

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