Floods are becoming more common around the world. What was once a 100-year phenomenon is now a seasonal trend that we must deal with. But, do you know exactly what is flooding? Flooding is an area of land that is usually dry is covered with water after heavy rain or after a river or lake flows over its banks. Flooding may occur as an overflow of water from water bodies, such as a river, lake, or ocean, in which the water overtops or breaks levees, resulting in some of that water escaping its usual boundaries, or it may occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on saturated ground in an areal flood.
According to Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB), In 2019, there is 390 flood cases that happened in Indonesia.
It recently happened in residents of the capital, Jakarta. This event has forced residents to evacuate because of the massive flooding. The rain falling on New Year’s Eve in the western and northern parts of Java was highly extreme and thus, triggered the flood. The BMKG said that “the nearly record-high rainfall intensity was due to several factors, including the occurrence of a monsoon”. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) measured 377mm (14.8 inches) of rainfall in a day at an airport in East Jakarta.
That’s the most rain in a single day since at least 1996, when records supplied by the agency began. At least 62,000 people have been evacuated out of the city. Some people spent the night on the roofs of their buildings while awaiting rescue. The intense rain began on New Year’s Eve and continued through the night, leading to parts of the city being submerged and landslides on the outskirts. Multiple transportation networks were disrupted including light rail transit, taxis, trains, toll roads, and an airport. Soekarno-Hatta Airport and the Mass Rapid Transit lines were operating as per normal. The victims ranged in age from eight to 82. Some died of hypothermia, while others drowned or were killed by landslides. One 16-year-old boy was electrocuted by a power line. President Joko Widodo blamed delays in flood control infrastructure projects for the severity of the damage.
The recent rash of torrential rainstorms across Indonesia specially in Jakarta and indeed around the world has cast a bright spotlight on the serious problem of intensified flooding events. The injuries, fatalities, damage to homes and businesses, and the entire municipal infrastructure, are devastating. And given the reality of climate change, these flooding disasters will escalate, unless we take some proactive measures to mitigate the problem. There are actually many preventative steps that can be taken to ensure that we remain safe such as creating a sponge city, rooftop gardens, flood plains, sustainable drainage, keeping the sewer system clean, and improve flood warning mechanism.
But, as a college student, there is many ways to prevent the flooding such as establishing disaster research center, creating the innovative tool, bringing the disaster issue as the main topic of discussion, etc.
We can’t just leave it up to the government, municipalities, environmentalists or urban planners to put an infrastructure in place to prevent urban flooding. We – each of us – must make it our personal responsibility to prevent the flooding starting from these little steps. If you change nothing, nothing will change.
REFERENCES
- Based on Governor Decree in 2007, No. 171. taken from Statistics DKI Jakarta Provincial Office, Jakarta in Figures, 2008, BPS, Province of DKI Jakarta
- https://www.npr.org/2020/01/06/793895408/monsoon-rains-hit-indonesia-causing-massive-flooding-in-jakarta
- http://bnpb.cloud/dibi/tabel1a
WOODIES by
Qintaro Makitsuna Maghsri
CIMSliography
- Human Resource Development Coordinator CIMSA UGM 2019/2020
- CIMSA’s Humanitarian Response Team