IPB, ETH Zurich, NUS Singapore and NGOs Discuss Ciliwung

For nearly 13 years the capital city, Jakarta, has always been flooded. Several major floods hit Jakarta in 2002, 2007 and 2013.

 

Even on January 17, 2013, Governor of DKI Jakarta, Joko Widodo, announced a state of flood emergency for Jakarta after 5 deaths and 15 447 residents were forced to evacuate. At that time, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) recorded the flood had inundated 500 neighborhoods (RT), 203 groups of neighborhoods (RW) in 44 villages spread over 25 districts.

 

For this reason, Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule of Zürich, National University of Singapore and NGOs in the home country having concern over Ciliwung gathered in order to discuss Ciliwung, Thursday (4/7) in Gadog, Bogor.

 

Team Leader of IPB, Prof. Dr. Ir. Hadi Susilo Arifin, said after the discussion that Switzerland and Singapore are interested in the problems of floods that occur every five years in Jakarta.

 

"They are really curious why the flood happens regularly every five year, and therefore they are interested to cooperate to find a solution," said Prof. Hadi.

 

He explained that this meeting was discussing not merely the Ciliwung River, but also its watershed, its left and right sides, as well as every part from its upstream to downstream.

 

"The case of flooding does not only stem from the upstream, but there may be human activities that lead to the flood," he added.

 

He said that the source of flooding will be investigated starting from ecology, plants, land use, community, architectural engineering, flood management, water modeling, and so on.

 

"Then, the next step is a political will in which IPB will approach the government to apply the study results obtained. We do not want the study results to end up on the bookshelf," he said. (Mtd)