6/20/14 10:24 PMFlooding: Looking Beyond Jakarta | The Jakarta Globe

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Flooding: Looking Beyond JakartaBy Fitrian Ardiansyah, Erik Meijaard & Jessie Wells on 07:44 pm Dec 04, 2013

Category OpinionTags: disaster mitigation, floods, Indonesia floods

Anyone living in Jakarta is more than familiar with the huge impacts of flooding, and the need for greater efforts for preventionand management. And yet, when it comes to the focus and support from the government for these actions, Jakarta may be more“fortunate” compared to other parts of the country that suffer from frequent floods, such as Kalimantan.

Heavy tropical rainfall causes flooding nearly everywhere in the Indonesian archipelago. According to the recent projections ofthe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in the coming decades Indonesia may receive less rainfall between July andOctober, but increased rains (and higher intensities) are expected during the wet season.

A combination of continuing environmental degradation (e.g. through deforestation and erosion), climate change that leads tosea level rise and extreme weather events, and poor infrastructure, has increased the urgency for Indonesia to address floodingissues not only through emergency response, but pro-actively through land use planning, mitigation and adaptation.

Some government agencies at the national and sub-national levels, including the Jakarta government, appear to be increasinglyaware of the significant social and economic impacts that flooding can have, and are starting to take steps to reduce risks andmitigate impacts.

Others are yet to take action. In Kalimantan, for example, the government and key stakeholders need to make a dramatic shiftaway from their current business-as-usual approach to development and reactive approach to flooding, to avoid severe impactsthat risk collapse of the islandʼs economic and humanitarian systems.

More than 20 major rivers flow through Kalimantan. Disturbances to the hydro-climatic systems, ecosystems and land use in thecatchment areas of these rivers will have serious consequences for the islandʼs water supplies, transportation networks, and thecapacity of its people to further develop their economies and moderate the impacts of droughts and fires.

With regard to flooding, a recent study titled Forests, Floods, People and Wildlife on Borneo showed that problems caused byflooding in Kalimantan are much larger than previously recognized, that flood risks are being exacerbated by trends in climate,land use and urbanization, and that urgent and forward-thinking actions are needed to address these issues.

This study, published by the United Nations Environment Program, estimates that between April 2010 and 2013, media-reportedflood events inundated between 197,000 and 360,000 houses in Kalimantan, and displaced between 776,000 and 1.5 millionpeople. The authors emphasize that these are conservative estimates, since many events go unreported, and independentsurveys in 354 villages indicated that flooding occurred annually or even more frequently in at least 49 percent of villages in theisland — with large social and economic impacts.

This study also found that 18 percent of villages experienced an increase in flood frequencies over the past 30 years. Increasesin flood frequencies were primarily concentrated in the middle Mahakam area in East Kalimantan, the lower and middle reachesof the Barito, Kahayan, Sampit and Lamandau Rivers in South and Central Kalimantan, and the low-lying swamps around theKapuas River in West Kalimantan. Reports of increasing flood frequencies were also strongly associated with increased turbidityand declines in water quality.

These are all areas with high human population densities and increasing agricultural developments, indicating that futureeconomic impacts of flooding could be larger still.

One important aspect specifically explored in the study is the link between deforestation and changes in flood frequencies. Thestudy concludes that it is not possible yet to understand the full picture of the complex relationships between land cover,topography and flooding, but the data indicate that increases in flooding were most likely in areas that have experienced moreextensive deforestation for oil palm development, or severe degradation through logging and fires.

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6/20/14 10:24 PMFlooding: Looking Beyond Jakarta | The Jakarta Globe

Page 2 of 3http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/flooding-looking-beyond-jakarta/

Such findings are important for Indonesiaʼs land use policies. Indonesiaʼs regulations (including Agriculture Ministry Decree No.837 of 1980), have provided guidance for identifying lands that play an important role in watershed protection, based onconsiderations of slope, soil type and rainfall intensity.

However, vast areas of lands that meet these criteria have not been gazetted with any protection status such as protection forest(hutan lindung), but instead have been given out to industrial logging or other development activities incompatible withmaintaining their hydrological functions. Such areas include large areas of Kalimantanʼs forests on steep slopes or on deeppeats, which continue to be converted despite the consequences.

The recent moratorium policy on forest and peat land conversion issued by the national government provides an opportunity forremaining areas to be protected, conserved and sustainably managed.

Taking up this opportunity will require governments at each level to effectively implement and monitor existing policies; tostrengthen capacities for landscape planning that sustains the vital functions of watersheds, alongside other ecosystem benefitsand economic developments; and to integrate land use planning with local preventive measures for flooding and adaptation toflooding regimes.

Otherwise, flooding impacts associated with deforestation and forest degradation in Kalimantan are only going to get worse.

In addition, rapid migration and urban expansion in the coastal and riverine lowlands affects both the likelihood of flood events(e.g. through altered hydrology and land subsidence), and amplifies the likely impacts of those events on larger and moreconcentrated populations of vulnerable people. Trends toward urbanization are likely to continue, and so an urgent and sustainedeffort is needed to reduce the impacts of urban and upstream development on flood risks, and to make settlements as resilient aspossible to the risks that remain.

The government needs to act urgently. Agus Purnomo, a member of the Special Staff to the Indonesian President on ClimateChange and the head of the secretariat of the National Council on Climate Change, states that many weather-related disasters inIndonesia, such as flooding and landslides, are having increasing impacts. He further argues that it is not only new policies thatIndonesia requires, but also increased capacity, sufficient resources and adequate technology to address this issue.

Such comprehensive thinking, however, needs to be translated and supported at the local level, particularly in Kalimantanʼspolitical agendas. Reading local newspapers, one wonders whether politicians in Kalimantan share similar concerns, since mostdiscussions or actions related to flooding focus on mitigation through hard infrastructure (e.g. flood defenses), and appear toneglect efforts for hazard reduction or prevention (e.g. maintaining forested watersheds and improving infrastructure) or risk-reduction and adaptation.

It is time for government to put into effect its own, existing policies, including the governmentʼs commitments to sustainingessential watershed functions, to reducing emissions from land use, and to maintaining at least 45 percent of Kalimantanʼs landarea as forest (Presidential Decree No. 3 of 2012).

To achieve this, the national government, through its Forestry Ministry, Environment Ministry and recently established REDD+Agency (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, plus conservation and enhancement of forest carbonstocks), needs to enhance collaboration with local governments to enable land use planning that integrates the multiple functionsof landscapes, including rigorously identifying which forests should be protected from development and which areas can besustainably used or developed, and how.

The One Map Initiative, for example, can be used to guide the process on the ground so that needs for economic developmentcan be met in concert with (rather than at a cost to) environmental protection and ecosystem services.

It is essential for the government and key stakeholders to show that the countryʼs commitments to addressing deforestation,climate change and disaster risks are concrete and meaningful. With this, as a society, we can hope that Indonesia will be able tobeat the flooding challenge.

Fitrian Ardiansyah is a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University and program development director at PelangiIndonesia.

Erik Meijaard is a long-term Indonesia-based conservation scientist leading the Borneo Futures initiative as a consultant forPeople and Nature Consulting International.

Jessie Wells is a postdoc at the Environmental Decisions Group, University of Queensland, researching hydrological ecosystemservices in Kalimantan.

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6/20/14 10:24 PMFlooding: Looking Beyond Jakarta | The Jakarta Globe

Page 3 of 3http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/flooding-looking-beyond-jakarta/

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billy • 6 months ago

oh just let it go under water ... lets face it , jakarta is a dead loss.

too little too late ...!

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