Early Warning Systems Lacking

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Flooding due to overflowing rivers routinely occurs in a number of areas throughout the country. However, until now, effective early warning systems to prevent people from falling victim to floods have not been adequately developed. Of the 13 rivers that cross Jakarta alone, only three are monitored by an early warning system.

As of Wednesday (22/2), five deaths from the floods that hit Jakarta and its surrounding areas on Tuesday (21/2) have been recorded.

A number of the residents living along the embankment of the Cakung Lama River in Sukapura subdistrict, Cilincing, North Jakarta, for example, said they had never heard any early warnings before floods hit their residential area. The residents realize there is flooding when the water enters their houses.

The river segment near their houses has been dredged twice using excavators. However, reinforcement of the river walls has not been carried out.

"For small floods and for flooding up to the chest in height, there is no warning at all," said Esih, 60, a resident of Sukapura.

Floods up to 1.5 meters in height took place in 2007.

Residents, neighborhood community administrators and government representatives have never talked about the importance of early warning systems for Cakung River.

Something similar also happened in Cipinang Melayu, Makasar, East Jakarta.

The head of neighborhood community RW 004, Irwan Kurniadi, said for dozens of years there was no warning or alert status for Sunter River. The residents only rely on observation and experience. "Usually, the residents already know what’s happening when the water level has reached a certain height,” he said.

Nonetheless, the head of the Jakarta Water Resources Office, Teguh Hendrawan, insisted an early warning system had been applied to rivers crossing Jakarta. The system has been installed for the Cipinang, Sunter and Ciliwung rivers. "An early warning system has been prepared for each subdistrict affected by flooding," Teguh said.

The warning system is equipped with sirens and traditional tools like clappers. Teguh cited as an example that for the operation of a warning system in Ciliwung, the alert warning originates from the Katulampa gate. This information is usually forwarded to the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD). From the BPBD, the information is then spread to related branches and then to the subdistricts, neighborhood communities and the public.

"According to my experience, the water will reach the residential areas about six to nine hours later. The system helps residents and related offices to get ready," Teguh said.

The head of BPBD Jakarta, Husein Murad, said the early warning system at Sunter River, which inundated Cipinang Melayu and Cipinang Muara, is difficult to implement effectively to the absence of river gates. Thus far, the BPBD can only send SMS messages to residents within the radius of the potential flood.

Husein admitted that the early warning system at Sunter River had not been installed due to the absence of river gates. There is only one gate on Sunter River, near the downstream areas in North Jakarta.

Due to the absence of river gates, the BPBD only refers to the weather forecast from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). The data is then spread through Twitter accounts, SMS messages or mass media outlets such as radio. This system has been in place since 2013.

According to Husein, a better early warning system for Sunter River could actually be built by the community. In Kampung Melayu, for example, local residents have already built a level monitoring board.

Spreading

According to reports from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), so far in 2017 there have been 458 natural disasters that together have killed 43 people and injured 132 others. The total number of people affected or displaced has reached 545,257.

Floods, landslides and tornadoes dominated the frequency of the disasters and the number of victims. Flooding was the most frequent disaster, occurring on 205 occasions and causing 29 deaths. Landslides resulted in the deaths of 17 people and tornadoes resulted in the deaths of 11.

Central Java was most frequently hit by floods and landslides, followed by East Java and West Java. This shows that floods and landslides take place in more densely populated areas that have undergone intensive development.

The data was disclosed by BNPB chairman Willem Rampangilei in Jakarta yesterday. Willem also said there were 2,384 disasters in 2016, mostly dominated by floods and landslides, the highest number of disasters over the last nine years.

Aside from that, he also said the number of areas prone to flooding had increased since 2016. Furthermore, disasters occurred in areas that had never been hit by flooding before, such the regencies of Garut, Pangkalpinang, the cities of Bandung and Bima, and Kemang in Jakarta.

Willem added that the rising number of floods and landslides took place in line with the rate of environment degradation, which was faster than recovery efforts.

"The rate of forest destruction ranges from 750,000 hectares to 1 million hectares per year, while the ability of the government to rehabilitate land and forests reaches an average of 250,000 hectares per year," he said.

Adopting local wisdom

With the increasing rate of vulnerability, disaster mitigation capability in general is still inadequate, both for structural and non-structural mitigation. The BPBDs in each region should be able to spearhead disaster mitigation in their respective regions.

The BNPB will strengthen coordination with regional governments to improve capability in disaster mitigation. The mitigation efforts and prevention of disasters in regions will be carried out in line with local wisdom.

This was affirmed by BNPB principal secretary Dody Ruswandi on the sidelines of a national working meeting of BNPBs in Yogyakarta yesterday. The meeting was attended by 2,500 representatives from BPBDs at the provincial, regency and city level.

"Mitigation is not easy. A total of 61 million people live in areas prone to flooding and 124 million others live in areas prone to landslides. It takes innovation to harmonize local wisdom with mitigation programs or disaster prevention programs," Dody said.

Bernadus Wisnu Wijaya, deputy chairman for the office of preparation at the BNPB, said BPBDs should consider a number of aspects in relation to relocation policies.

"Among others, village structure, the availability of natural resources, especially water and the kinship of residents," he said.

High waves

With the lack of early preparation, disasters continue to threaten the majority of Indonesians. Most of the country is still on alert for flooding. Parts of Indonesia are also threatened by high waves.

Andri Ramdani, head of submaritime meteorology information section at the BMKG, said waves as high as 2.5 meters would likely occur in the waters off Sulawesi.

Meanwhile, waves up to 3 meters in height will likely occur in the northern parts of Sulawesi, the northern parts of Halmahera and the northern parts of Papua.

(IRE/JOG/ DEA/ DIM/AIK/ HLN)