Asia Times: Jakarta cries a river


	February 2, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Jakarta cries a river
By Bill Guerin

JAKARTA - Acts of God or acts of Satan? Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's storm troopers, the city's so-called public-order officials who implement his war plan against the weak and the poor, have been forced to run for shelter this week from rainstorms that have flooded the city.

At least 72 hours of torrential rains and citywide floods have given the storm troopers a break from destroying kiosks and 30-year-old "temporary" plywood houses, arresting ladies (and gentlemen) of the night, and crushing becaks (pedicabs) with an excavator, all justified by the governor's crusade to "clean up" his city. The same officials are now busy organizing "relief" for the estimated 230,000 people badly affected by the worst of an annual series of floods.

Governor Sutiyoso controls a city that swims in filth every year during the wet season, from October to February. Forty percent of Jakarta, or 24,000 square meters, is on low land, and 78 areas are prone to flooding. This time around, the floods have inundated not only the many slum areas but also many swanky middle-class residential complexes.

The figures show the scale of this disaster. Using the simple parameter of flooded house equals victim, North Jakarta has reported 94,000 victims, West Jakarta 84,000, and East Jakarta 37,000. The elite areas of South Jakarta and Central Jakarta have so far reported only 17,867 and 1,591 victims, respectively. So far, since the onset on the evening of January 23, the floods have claimed at least 15 lives. At least 233,000 Jakartans are directly affected and millions more indirectly affected by the ensuing traffic jams, while 55,000 flood victims currently need immediate relief aid.

The worst-hit areas are still submerged in three meters of water and in Cawang subdistrict, East Jakarta, water levels were recorded at six meters, forcing as many as 3,655 people to leave their houses. In Manggarai, South Jakarta, flood victims tried to take the law into their own hands and open the floodgate there to allow the water to drain away, but Raya Siahaan, in charge of the governor's city control center for social disturbances, would have none of that, pointing out that if the gate were opened half of Jakarta, including exclusive housing complexes in Menteng, Central Jakarta, where ex-president Suharto lives, would be severely affected.

This is not how the Dutch, who administered what was then Batavia through the Dutch East India Company (VOC), had wanted their beloved crown jewel to be developed. The colonialists, long experienced in matters of water and drainage, made sure that Batavia (then, as now, the seat of power and central government), had a comprehensive and engineered network of rivers, drains and canals to cope with acts of God and the weaknesses of man.

A colonized populace that was well used to order and regulations, neat and tidy in habit, and in far lower numbers than the modern-day Batavia, were taught that their political masters knew what was best. However, the Dutch canal system never quite managed to cope with the drainage problems and by 1846, almost a century before Indonesia gained independence, they were resorting to the same system as this administration - to sort out the problems only when floods occurred.

Modern-day Jakarta stretches 661.64 square kilometers across the alluvial lowland on the north coast of West Java, and has no fewer than 13 rivers, both natural and man-made. More than 2,000 millimeters of rain falls on Jakarta every year and there is rarely a year without floods. The last major flood in Jakarta was in 1996 when rainfall reached a cumulative total of 400mm.

Meanwhile, the rapid population growth and urbanization of the Suharto days saw some 2,753 hectares of agricultural land made into housing estates and 47 hectares converted to industrial use in the span of four years alone, from 1988-92.

Sutiyoso, apparantly without tongue firmly in cheek, has been popping up on television to make sure the city inhabitants knew he was taking this seriously. "The national economy is in a poor state. This is the rainy season. Come on now. What's needed is gotong royong [mutual cooperation], not a kambing hitam [scapegoat] to sort this out." There were no mention of specific details, no public commitment to actually doing anything at all, and certainly no mention of money.

A measly Rp294 billion (US$28.3 million) is earmarked in this year's budget for flood control, but the chances of this money being properly allocated are slim. The money only covers the limited dredging of rivers and some improvements to the drainage system and infrastructure that links the dark, slimy rivers flowing at a snail's pace through the capital. An emergency fund, fattened by budget surpluses since 1999, has now reached Rp600 billion and would allow some serious attention to be paid to improvements.

There are plans to improve the 11-kilometer East Flood Canal and build a 23-kilometer West Flood Canal to alleviate the flooding problems, but the exorbitant cost of land in the capital will thwart any such serious attempts. About 230 hectares of land are needed for the development of the East Flood Canal alone.

Some work has been done. The city agencies have built a dam in Bintaro, home to massive residential complexes, to hold back the floodwater, and in Pluit, once highest on the flood-prone lists, they have cleverly channeled surplus floodwater into the sea at nearby Ancol.

The laissez-faire attitude to the environment by successive administrations has delivered disaster after disaster. The rampant destruction of the rain forests, long a global issue, takes place far from Jakarta, but the message is the same: go through the motions of taking firm action only when the river of complaints overflows, content in the knowledge that the need for urgency will dissipate as more important issues surface. This week saw at least two press editorials going to town on the issue of how much the irresponsible behavior of Indonesians themselves affects the severity of the "natural" disaster now under way in Jakarta.

Does this mean the poor are to blame for the despair of losing their basic human need - a safe and secure roof over their heads to house their pathetically few belongings? When will the campaign start to address the real causes of the disaster? Poor public discipline and the disgraceful national trait of littering the environment are certainly a factor, along with the high urbanization rate, but more damaging has been the corruption in the bureaucracy and the power of those who lobby to win the day for commercial interests above all else. The agency also gets about Rp300 billion a year from the city budget.

No, the Jakarta floods are a microcosm of a much greater national problem. Regulations are ignored at will by the kings of the construction industry, the main men in the real-estate sector, and industrial bullies who run factories without concern for the surrounding environment. President Megawati Sukarnoputri belatedly surfaced from the backwaters on Thursday and showed her solidarity with the flood vctims by floating along in a precious rubber boat, along with husband Taufik Kiemas, Sutiyoso himself, and the Jakarta police chief and military commander. A day earlier she had ordered a "quick response to the floods" and was "concerned about the current disaster", according to Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi. He had been advising Megawati on the grave issues of disease, diarrhea and cholera carried by the waters from West Java's wettest town, Bogor, home to the sources of the Ciliwung and Cisadane rivers. The upper Ciliwung river empties into the Java Sea after winding its way through Jakarta.

The massive real-estate developments surrounding Jakarta have replaced thousands of hectares of irrigated rice paddies, small lakes, and other natural habitats. Some of these estates are even built on water catchment areas. Meanwhile, in the city proper, greenbelt areas have long since gone, swallowed up by office blocks owned by the rich and powerful.

Then there is the toll road that links the city to Sukarno-Hatta International Airport. Year after year, flights have to be delayed and business severely disrupted by the flooding of this vital artery. The root cause goes back to the immense power of those vested interests in the government at the time, the military, and big business interests that ensured the licensing of Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta's most luxurious housing development on the north coast, directly under the flight path of airplanes within seconds of touching down at the airport.

A 1995 Suharto decree formalized the so-called Jakarta Bay project, covering 2,700 hectares and encroaching upon valuable marshland. The mangrove forests there sheltered more than 60 plant species and 2,000 animal species and acted as a natural breakwater between the sea and the land. Consolidated and professionally prepared reports from the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) warned that the project would upset the ecological balance and would certainly cause flooding on the airport toll road. Developer Ciputra, immensely powerful even today, scoffed at this and boasted he was ready to go to prison if his development caused environmental problems. B J Habibie revoked the decree three years later, but by then the rich had already picked out and paid for their mansions.

The floods have brought the national "quick fix" syndrome right to the doorstep of the seat of power. As with the Indonesian public as a whole, Jakarta citizens are given no opportunity to be involved in the planning of policies that will drastically affect their lives in one way or another.

A month ago, Bekasi councilors decided unilaterally to test their new powers as an independent regional municipality, and told Sutiyoso that they were closing up the Bantar Gebang dump, 20 kilometers east of Jakarta, that took in 22,000 cubic meters, or 104 hectares, of metroplitan garbage every day. Local residents near the dump were afflicted with skin diseases, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infections due to the levels of dioxins in the air. Jakarta almost drowned in a sea of rubbish until the governor and his councilors realized the problem was not going to go away.

The city administration has already delayed a plan to buy trucks for its sanitary agency and public-order office since the budgeted funds had been grabbed first by councilors to pay for 55 new cars and five buses for their use. The existing 600 garbage trucks cannot cope with the 25,000 cubic meters of garbage a day that doesn't end up clogging the city's drainage system and has to be dumped.

Megawati's politically correct instruction to do something is par for the course, but of course will not be translated into any real action until, or if, the cabinet and the not-so-iron lady give their full and transparent commitment to law enforcement and good governance. Enshrined in this would have to be a concrete commitment to environmental protection, which would bring Megawati face to face with those from whom she most needs support - the military and the logging and construction tycoons.

The president's party, PDI-P, made a great fuss about retaining their nationwide network POSKO after the elections. This would have made an enormous difference to efforts to coordinate the rescue of thousands of people desperate for help. But no, it was all theory, much the same as the promise given by then newly appointed Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Yusuf Kalla last August 10. He warned, "Don't associate our office with floods and other natural disasters. We will deal more with finding ways to improve people's welfare."

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