Almost every city in Indonesia has a river.  It is also included Jakarta that has 15 rivers. Unfortunately, nowadays several rivers in Jakarta do not clean anymore. Many rivers have problem with rubbish that cause the colour of the water not only cloudy and brown, but unpleasant smells.  Changing in the colour and smelly is caused by the entry of pollutants or chemicals that are called river water pollution. In addition to many industrial waste is dumped into the river, people that have no awareness to preserve the environment often throw garbage into the river. As the result, river has become a giant rubbish bin.

Jakarta is too sexy for attracting people to come.  It has been becoming the most popular destination of urbanization. The city is over crowded with too many people.  It has caused many residents to find difficulties in settlement land. Those who do not get the house eventually create a semi-permanent home in various places, one of which is a riverside land. The land along the rivers in Jakarta turned into a slum area. Residents inhabiting slum dwellings usually have a bad habit of throwing anything that is not useful into the river. Because their houses are right on the riverbank so that whatever waste they produce will be immediately thrown into the river.

Moreover, many other people also just through away the rubbish carelessly. They do not realize that the rubbish will flow into the river. In turn, the river becomes filled with garbage and then undergoes siltation. The shallowness of the river causes it is unable to accommodate the flow of water.  When the rainy season comes, the polluted shallow river will cause flooding. The river water floods bring along harmful bacteria that eventually causes other various diseases.

Among rivers in Jakarta, the most contaminated is Ciliwung River.  The river is accused to responsible for the yearly floods in several places in Jakarta. The water quality of the Ciliwung river is heavily polluted on all segments, from upstream (Puncak, Bogor) to downstream (DKI Jakarta). Fluctuations in river water discharges between the dry season and the rainy season are high enough to cause routine floods in Jakarta.

Responding to disaster, the Jakarta City Government has conducted various efforts to mitigate the risk and eliminate the impact. Among other efforts, the most vigorous activities are the revitalization of pumping houses and river normalization in addition to massive campaign for not littering the river.  

Currently, the pumping machines in Jakarta are 446 units spread out in 150 pump house locations. Basuki Tjahja Purnama as the Governor instructed all pump houses should be managed properly so that they can run well when needed.

The steps taken in the revitalization of pumps include repairing damaged pumps, replacing old and small-capacity pumps, optimizing pump support facilities, optimizing rivers, drainage channels and other waterways to support pump flow and discharge systems. Moreover, it is also important to improve coordination between relevant regional apparatus to indicate potential problems and solve existing problems quickly, improve supervision and checks periodically and systematically, as well as to ensure cleanliness of the pump house environment to make pump function optimally.  Maintaining the cleanliness of drainage channels and waterways for pumping machines free of waste that could potentially clog pumps is necessity.

River normalization is an attempt to return the river to its original function. Normalization is done when the condition of the river is too shallow.  It requires dredging. The number of river walls prone to landslides. The flow system that has not been well built and the number of watersheds that are misused for residential population.

To optimize the river normalization process, the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta has made several efforts. Some of them are dredging to widen and deepen the river, mounting sheet pile or river stone for river wall hardening, constructing a new straight river line with shortest path, and building embankment with landfill or concrete wall extending in flood-prone areas.

In order to anticipate flooding, the Governor has assigned officers to manage infrastructure and channel facilities. The officer is responsible for handling the problems of waterways that have the potential to cause flooding or puddles, such as sewerage, clogged garbage and the lack of drains. The Infrastructure and Infrastructure Handling Officer is assigned based on incoming reports through the Qlue application. Qlue is an application that deliberately made by Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta to serve as a means of public complaints.

Every day the Hygiene Management Unit of the Water Agency of the Environment Agency picks up about 100 tons of waste from the connecting channel. Until March 2017, garbage problems in 760 out of a total 1,119 connecting channels spread across five areas of Jakarta have been addressed. The Clean Water Management Unit of the Environment Agency has also overcome the waste problem in 13 rivers  and 2 canal floods in Jakarta with 4000 officers.

Referee :

Smartcity.jakarta.go.id/blog/91/menuju-jakarta-bebas-banjir

Photos :

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