Plis Deh Jakarta!

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has thumbed his nose at a Supreme Court ruling and said the city will forge ahead with a major sea reclamation project. (JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

Bang Foke is pushing ahead with the sea reclamation project in North Jakarta, despite environmental experts saying that it will be disastrous, and even despite blocks from the State Ministry of the Environment and the Supreme Court.

Last month, the government unveiled their plan to make Jakarta flood-free by 2025.

Yipeee. What do we do for the intervening 16 years? But to give the government some credit, the plan is seemingly comprehensive… then again, I have never seen any project continued consistently for 4 years, let alone 16. I’m not even sure if they have integrated this into other grand plans i.e. overhauling the public transport network, creation of cheaper housing complexes and so on.

But hey kids, there’s always something we can do, right? Like making sure we dont litter the rivers in the first place.

Plis Deh Jakarta extends its deepest sympathies and profound prayers to those who suffered from the leevee breach at Situ Gintung. We will post more info on rescue efforts and how you can help soon.

A panel of experts from various agencies and organizations have convened in a conference, basically to say that Jakarta needs a new approach towards the yearly flooding. Really? You think?

Applausable as the conference is…. isn’t it just a tad too late to say we need to prevent floods, not just react to them?

Again, it’s better late than never. But try explaining that to the citizens in Kampung Melayu or Kelapa Gading.

Imagine rolling hillsides side-by-side with tea plantations, encircled by really big, posh houses, all empty. Imagine virtually only one major road connecting that area to the city, and imagine it only being filled with people on the weekends – with their cars of course, creating weekly traffic jams that aren’t even news anymore.

Done imagining? Yep, it’s Puncak. These hillsides, which are naturally supposed to be water catchment areas, are instead filled with big, empty houses owned by really rich people, and are usually empty during the week and rented out during the weekend. Talk about the needs of the few going above the needs of the many – the burst of villas in the 1980s in the Puncak area has caused unchecked development, and, yes, eventually, more water coming down the rivers to flood Jakarta because it is not absorbed enough by the plants that are still there.

So a 20-year overdue crackdown on these villas is coming. When? We don’t know yet, as finally the authorities have the smarts to not reveal the schedule. Well, at least something is being done.

Remember this post?

Looks like we’ll have to wait a little more, since the loan is taking a while to trickle down to us. Until November, that is. Which year, we’ll never know.

What is actually happening is that the World Bank doesn’t have money to loan to us… or anyone else for that matter… So in the meantime, better pitch in for that rubber boat!

One sunny Saturday afternoon in the Pondok Cabe area, traffic was as packed as it usually is in the area. While stuck in traffic on a small bridge over a river, a motorcycle rider passing by suddenly stops on the bridge, takes a plastic bag from a hook on his motorcycle, and throws it in the river. He then goes on riding…

And yet we are always puzzled why it floods in the rainy season.

Jakarta was beseiged by armies of stationary vehicles for the most part of the morning. Jakarta became a giant, wet parking lot… Uhm, maybe we should ease up on car sales for the time being?

I left home at around 8.30 and reached the office at 12, with around 1 hour spent a mere 1 km from my home.

What’s your ‘macet’ story today?

After 8 years, the East Flood Canal is coming closer to reality. Has construction been started? Just a bit, but who knows, really. But the acquisition of land is 90% complete!

So if in average land acquisition goes forward at about 11% per year, we should be done with it by early 2010. Then the larger scale construction happens, who knows for how long, but for argument’s sake, 3 years. Therefore, we’ll start to have a relatively flood-free Jakarta by 2013!

Nice to have something to look forward to.

So, the poor guys living in the Bungur area have their trash piling up, due to the fact the garbage trucks are late making their rounds. The Sanitation Agency says the trucks are delayed due to the floods blocking several roads to Bantar Gebang (the city dump, essentially).

So combine that with the floods bringing in trash to Jakarta, our city totally stinks!

Our beloved governor has said that Jakarta is ready for the peak of the floods anticipated in February. Early-warning systems and task forces have been set up for this purpose, and have supposedly worked for a flood along the Ciliwung earlier this month.

Yes, when the flood comes, we’ll be ready this time! Yeah yeah!

And yet, nothing is done trying to avoid the actual flood itself.

(Originally posted Dec 11, 2005)

It’s the rainy season in Jakarta, and the new King has arrived.

Whatever happens, when the water comes, everybody just stops. They stay in their buildings, they stop their cars on the street… giving a moment for the new King to pass. Why?

Because, when it rains here… IT REALLY RAINS.
when it starts raining hard… the defunct drainage system just lets the water flow onto the streets, even the main roads (yes, including those big four-lane roads)… motorcyclists stop under flyovers for cover from the rain… thus creating a city-wide traffic jam. the motorcyclists on a 2-lane road take up one lane (as there are tens of thousands of motorcylces in Jakarta), not to mention the flood, which can break down most of the older cars rolling in the street… as if we don’t have enough of these traffic jams on usual sunny days…

so if it’s raining outside… better to stay in.. or take your chances… taking forever to go where you’re going to.

plis deeeeh…