Jakarta Flood, Head of BNPB: Caused by Groundwater Extraction
Source: Tempo.co
Date: 25 February 2020
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency or BNPB Doni Monardo revealed one of the causes of Jakarta floods. The reason is excessive groundwater uptake.
"The extraction of groundwater which has a considerable impact on land subsidence in Jakarta has become one of the causes of flooding," Doni said in Jakarta, Tuesday, February 25, 2020.
When compared 20 to 30 years ago, said Doni, the mainland in the capital city has decreased. In fact, at that time most of Jakarta was still above sea level.
"Now according to the data. it has decreased. One of them is due to a large amount of groundwater extraction," Doni said.
For now, the position of the land becomes lower than the sea level. It has become difficult for water to get out of the land and into the sea.
This condition, according to Doni, is worsened by the fact that there are still many places where the water flow is blocked, drainage is not running smoothly so that the rivers are filled with garbage due to bad public behavior. "Based on data about seven months ago a number of rivers in Jakarta and Bekasi were filled with garbage," he said.
The behavior patterns of the people have a big influence on the condition of the polluted rivers. Even though many communities have moved to clean up the rivers, the garbage is still thrown back into the river.
"After cleaning, some people throw it back into the river. As a result, the garbage covers the river flow and during the rainy season like now it triggers floods," Doni said.
Therefore, according to Doni, the problem cannot be solved by just one institution but there must be collective awareness. He also suggested that relevant parties allow the use of more pumping machines so that the water could be pumped into the sea.
In addition, planting of vegetation or certain plants on the Jakarta coast is still needed as a disaster mitigation effort because it can absorb water. "When there are no plants at all and high rainfall then directly hit the ground and consequently there is no recharge," said Doni.
Meanwhile, DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that today's flooding affected more than 200 RWs in Jakarta. Also, flooding inundated dozens of roads that caused residents' activities to be hampered. Some Transjakarta and KRL routes are not operating normally.
