The floods that are currently affecting some areas in Bandung district and Bandung municipality have caused not only tens thousand of people to evacuate but also have threatened the economy of the region. While we still cannot forget that about US$450 million was lost during the floods in Jakarta early this year, it is predicted that the textile industry in Majalaya has lost a great deal through the worst floods to hit the city in a decade.
Although floods have long been part of the history of Indonesia's cities, including Greater Bandung and Jakarta, innovative measures have not been adequately explored to cope with this increasing challenge.
Periodic flooding in Jakarta started in the beginning of the 17th century, when the city was first developed by the Dutch government. Today's government still relies on the old plan made by H. van Breen in order to reduce the impact. By splitting the Ciliwung River into two canals, it was expected that the inundation in parts of the city could be avoided. The West Flood Canal was completed many years ago, but the East Flood Canal has faced financial and social issues related to land releases.
Similar attempts have been made to address the annual floods in Greater Bandung. The west Java Province has been actively digging the Citarum River, which is the main river flowing throughout this valley, in order to wash out intensive sedimentation on the bed of the river. The result of this attempt is now being questioned. While this project is highly expensive, the flooding was not reduced; and became even worse, as illustrated above.
"Keeping floods away from the settlement areas" probably was a promising discourse until the early of twentieth century, when urbanization was still technically manageable. However, it is too naive to think that the current authorities still believe in the superiority of engineering measures in addressing urbanization consequences in the age of "risk society", in which collective issues are the result of complex problems beyond the control of traditional machineries.
Just like thinking of extending and building new roads, which has been proven to be unable to follow the progressive increase in the number of new cars in Jakarta. A metaphor can be applied while we are dealing with flooding. The engineers can raise the flood dams, but how high? While the budget is also very limited, the threat from flooding seems to increase infinitely.
Following growing tension over new settlements and economic activities, the discourse of "keeping settlement areas away from floods" has also been developed. This is even more ambitious, aiming to push away new development and to relocate existing economic activities from areas that are prone to flooding. Although urban growth is now being reduced outside Jakarta, much has been developed in water recharge regions, mainly south of Jakarta. These indeed have worsened the impact of flooding.
Moreover, Bandung District has long been planning to relocate the existing industrial agglomeration in the southern part of Bandung, included Majalaya. Yet this is still rhetoric with uncountable consequences. Overall, these long-term efforts need much more political will and rule of law, which have been major obstacles in Indonesia. Besides, they are still unrealistic considering the weak and inconsistent spatial planning and development control systems.
The above two discourses treat the water (floods) as the enemy. Meanwhile, it is obvious that this perspective has brought us toward a restless fight against the natural processes. If we cannot beat our enemies, then it would be more fruitful to treat them as our friends. Therefore, "living with water" could be a new promising discourse to cope with flooding in the two metropolitan regions. Residents should treat water as an integrated part of their living environment that deserves proportional attention while they are building their homes and facilities as well as using and disposing of waste.
Furthermore, the governments should include water as an essential issue in their development plans and programs. They should learn from other countries how to internalize water issues in an efficient way. For example, considering limited open spaces, municipalities in coastal Japan build sport and recreational facilities in such a way that they can retain water during heavy rainfall.
We also can learn from the Low Countries in coping with the North Sea storm in the 1950s. The Netherlands launched the Delta Works, which has been the most extensive dam ever built to hold back the storm. While this project was remarkably costly and increasingly questioned for its effectiveness, Flanders (Belgium) reacted in a different way. They preferred to give water more room to flow through, transforming cultivated areas in water catchments. While it was much cheaper, the later has proven to be more effective in the long term.
"Giving back space to the water" needs to be tried in order to address the unresolved flooding in Greater Bandung and Jakarta. The government and other organizations should continually campaign for preserving the water catchment regions, including Bopunjur (Bogor-Puncak-Cianjur) corridor and Northern Bandung. Spatial plans and development permit systems should include water assessment as one of important elements, e.g. building code, water retention, and a sanitation network, in granting permission for new developments. Last but not least, the government should develop a good mitigation system in order to avoid greater losses.
Acknowledgments: I would like to thank Dr. Jochem de Vries, Dr. Johan Woltjer, and Dr. Nanka Karstkarrel for their interesting classes of water management (2006).
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