Floods in Jakarta

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Flooding in Jakarta occurs frequently during the monsoons due to the geographic features of the Indonesian capital . Again and again these floods take on catastrophic proportions, most recently in 2020.

Jakarta's geography

Canals and rivers in the city

The port city of Jakarta was built on a swampy coastal area. The Dutch of the East India Company dumped land and built canals in their colonial base in the 16th century. In addition, the city is drained by 13 rivers. A large city with around 10 million inhabitants grew out of the former Batavia , 30 million in the entire metropolitan region .

Jakarta is sinking by around 1–15 centimeters per year, in some parts of the city even by 25 centimeters. This makes Jakarta the fastest sinking city in the world. 40 percent of the city's area is already below sea level. Some parts of the city have already been given up by the residents. Again and again enlarged concrete walls are supposed to hold back the sea. Penetrating water must be pumped out. With the current trend, Jakarta will be 95 percent below sea level by 2050. The process of subsidence, known as subsidence , is primarily due to the extraction of groundwater for drinking water supply. Three quarters of the residents have no connection to the tap water system, which is also considered expensive and of poor quality. Heavy structures and tectonic processes are further factors for the subsidence .

The bed of the rivers has been made smaller by sediments that are increasingly brought in by the deforestation of the mountains in the hinterland. When there is heavy rainfall, the water level of the rivers can rise very quickly, and neighboring districts are regularly flooded. The fresh water in the city has to be diverted through a system of pumps and sluices.

Floods in Jakarta occur at least once a year, usually at the height of the rainy season in January and February. By global warming an increase in the frequency and intensity of rainfall is forecast and floods. The city has always been prone to flooding, but the worst have occurred in the recent past: 1996, 2002, 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2020.

The challenges to solving the problem are great and varied. In addition to the construction of a new large sea wall, alternative access to drinking water must also be found, connected with the need to remove the major pollution of the rivers and to build an adequate sewage system.

Not least against this background, it is planned to move the Indonesian capital to the island of Borneo in 2024 .

Floods 1996

In floods from January 6th to 9th and February 9th to February 13th 1996, around 30,000 people each had to leave their homes. A total of 30 people were killed. The financial loss was more than 438 million US dollars .

2002 floods

Floods in February 2002

The floods from January 27 to February 12, 2002, killed 147 people across Indonesia. 380,000 had to leave their homes. In Jakarta the water was up to two meters high and around 40,000 houses were flooded.

2007 floods

The flooding from January 31 to February 22, 2007 was the largest flood disaster in Jakarta to date and the first time that the city was inundated by a storm surge at the same time . 340 liters of rain fell within 24 hours. Three quarters of the city were flooded, houses were up to four meters under water. After the water level began to drop on February 7th, there was renewed flooding on February 18th. The epidemic outbreak affected 200,000 people. The economic damage amounted to more than 960 million US dollars. Different estimates for the number of those who had to flee their homes are between 340,000 and 590,000. At least 1500 houses were destroyed. 80 people lost their lives.

Floods 2013

Flooded street on January 17, 2013

Intense precipitation triggered widespread flooding in Jakarta from January 15th. At times 97,000 homes were under water and 250,000 people were directly affected. At the end of January the water level began to drop. The presidential palace was also affected by the floods. There are different data on the number of fatalities: According to OCHA , at least 41, according to other data, 57 people were killed.

Floods 2014

On January 12th, after a few days of heavy rainfall, floods occurred. 23 people died and more than 60,000 had to leave their homes. Due to renewed heavy rainfall on February 3rd and 4th, 18,500 people again had to flee their homes. The water level near the rivers was up to two meters above street level. Bridges and drainage systems were damaged or destroyed. The economic damage was estimated at around 407 million US dollars. In the coming months, there were further floods that did not harm people.

Floods 2020

In 2020, record rainfall caused severe flooding in the greater Jakarta area from January 1st to 7th.

A combination of monsoons, warm sea water and the meeting of winds over Java resulted in enormous clouds over the island at the turn of the year 2019/2020. On December 31, 2019, Jakarta fell with 377 liters per day, the most intense rainfall since 1866. This caused flooding in the greater Jakarta area and other regions of Java. In some places the water was up to six meters high. Landslides occurred in Bogor and Depok . The Halim Perdanakusuma airport had to be closed to 2 January.

According to the spokesman for the disaster control authority BNPB , Agus Wibowo, 120,000 helpers were on duty to help with the evacuations and to install water pumps. About 409,000 people had to be evacuated. On January 2nd, the water level began to drop slightly and residents of some neighborhoods were able to return to their homes. A total of 511,000 people were affected by the floods.

With more rain predicted, two planes dropped sodium chloride in an attempt to prevent cloud formation over the Sunda Strait . Rescue workers distributed medicine and hygiene kits to prevent the outbreak of epidemics and began spraying disinfectants on January 5th in the most severely affected residential areas. After the electricity was switched off in some areas, base transceiver stations for the cellular network also failed .

There were numerous landslides in the Lebak administrative district of the neighboring province of Banten , with more than 2000 houses being damaged or destroyed. Many cut off communities in the district had to be supplied from the air.

According to official figures, 61 people died in the floods in January 2020 in Jakarta and the surrounding area. This number has been revised downwards and there were temporarily 67 victims.

After continuous rain, parts of the city were flooded again on February 25, 2020, killing three people.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d Nina Belz: Indonesia's capital is in danger of sinking into the sea. In: nzz.ch . August 8, 2018, accessed January 3, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c Mayuri Mei Lin & Rafki Hidayat: Jakarta, the fastest-sinking city in the world. In: bbc.com . August 13, 2018, accessed January 3, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c Lena Bodewein: A city digs its own water. In: deutschlandfunk.de . October 12, 2019, accessed January 3, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Stephanie Lyons: The Jakarta floods of Early 2014: Rising Risks in one of the World's Fastest Sinking Cities. (PDF; 907 kB) In: IOM (Ed.): The State of Environmental Migration 2015 . Pp. 103-120, online at labos.ulg.ac.be (English).
  5. ↑ a b c Kharishar Kahfi: 'Not ordinary rain': Worst rainfall in over decade causes massive floods in Jakarta. In: thejakartapost.com . January 1, 2020, accessed on January 3, 2020.
  6. ↑ Matt Simon: Jakarta's Giant Seawall Is Useless if the City Keeps Sinking. In: wired.com . July 31, 2019, accessed January 3, 2020.
  7. ↑ 1996 Global Register of Major Flood Events. In: dartmouth.edu . February 21, 2006, accessed January 3, 2020.
  8. ↑ 2002 Global Register of Extreme Flood Events. In: dartmouth.edu . January 8, 2003, accessed January 3, 2020.
  9. ↑ a b 2007 Global Register of Major Flood Events. In: dartmouth.edu . May 1, 2008, accessed January 3, 2020.
  10. ↑ a b c d Situation Update No.3: Massive Floods in Greater Jakarta Area - Indonesia. (PDF; 1.76 MB) In: reliefweb.int . ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance, January 10, 2020, accessed January 10, 2020.
  11. ↑ Jakarta Flood. As of 17 January 2013. (PDF; 312 kB) In: reliefweb.int . OCHA , January 18, 2013, accessed January 4, 2020.
  12. ↑ Indonesia: Floods - DREF n ° MDRID007 operation update no. 1. In: reliefweb.int . IFRC , February 20, 2013, accessed January 4, 2020.
  13. ↑ a b c Niniek Karmini: Rescuers find more bodies in Jakarta floodwaters. In: smh.com.au . January 3, 2020, accessed on January 3, 2020.
  14. ↑ Indonesia: More dead, more rain. In: tagesschau.de . January 4, 2020, accessed January 10, 2020.
  15. ↑ a b c Jakarta floods: recovery effort begins as city counts cost of worst deluge in a decade. In: theguardian.com . January 6, 2020, accessed on January 7, 2020.
  16. ↑ Iniek Karmini: dead 16 Thousands caught in flooding in Indonesia's capital. In: abcnews.go.com . January 2, 2020, accessed January 3, 2020.
  17. ↑ Jakarta floods: cloud seeding planes will try to break up heavy rain. In: theguardian.com . January 3, 2020, accessed on January 3, 2020.
  18. ↑ a b Floods in Indonesia: number of deaths increased. In: orf.at . January 4, 2020, accessed on January 5, 2020.
  19. ↑ Karina M. Tehusijarana: Cellular services remain disrupted in some areas following Greater Jakarta floods. In: thejakartapost.com . January 3, 2020, accessed on January 5, 2020.
  20. ↑ Infografis Banjir Jakarta, Banten dan Jabar 16 January 2020. In: bnpb.go.id . January 16, 2020, accessed January 18, 2020 (Indonesian).
  21. ↑ Indonesia - Floods and landslides (DG ECHO, IFRC, BNPB, BMKG, HFI) (ECHO Daily Flash of 8 January 2020). In: reliefweb.int . ECHO , January 8, 2020, accessed on January 8, 2020.
  22. ↑ Continuous rain floods Indonesia's capital Jakarta. In: orf.at . February 25, 2020, accessed February 25, 2020.
  23. ↑ Widespread flooding in Greater Jakarta causes chaos. In: thejakartapost.com . February 25, 2020, accessed on February 25, 2020.
  24. ↑ Indonesia - Floods and landslides update (BNPB, BMKG, media) (ECHO Daily Flash of 27 February 2020). In: reliefweb.int . ERCC , February 27, 2020, accessed March 3, 2020.