Floods in Jakarta Spread, Several Rivers Overflow

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - The overflow of the Ciliwung River and Pesanggrahan River flooded parts of Jakarta, with water levels exceeding three meters on Tuesday (4/3/2025). In response to this, the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta is committed to focusing more on improving the Ciliwung River and has requested residents living in flood-prone areas to be willing to relocate to apartment complexes.

Malik (58) could only resign himself as he looked at his house in RT 06/RW 07 Rawajati, South Jakarta, Tuesday (4/3/2025), with only the roof visible. Floodwaters submerged his house up to 3 meters due to heavy rain and the overflow of the Ciliwung River.

On Monday morning (3/3/2025), Malik's house was briefly submerged by floodwaters, but only to a depth of approximately 60 centimeters. He had already finished cleaning his house by that evening.

"However, this morning at 7:00 AM WIB, the flood suddenly came again. It was more severe, reaching a height of over three meters. Fortunately, I was already prepared; I had moved my belongings to a neighbor's house," he said.

He stated that floods have become an annual visitor in Rawajati, although they are not always severe. The last major flood Malik experienced was in 2020. This time, another major flood has arrived after five years.

"Before that, there were also devastating floods in 2007 and 2012," said Malik.

A similar story occurred in Cililitan, East Jakarta. The head of RT 16/RW 07 Cililitan, Cici Marlina, stated that initially, flooding in her area happened on Monday morning (3/3/2025) due to a broken water gate. The water began to recede at around 9:00 PM WIB.

However, flooding occurred again on Tuesday (3/4/2025) morning with higher intensity. "At 05.00 WIB, water entered residents' houses again. The water was really strong, it couldn't be contained. It overflowed from the Ciliwung River," said Cici.

On Tuesday afternoon, water was still inundating residents' homes in RW 07. The water level varied at each location, with some areas reaching up to 2 meters on Tuesday afternoon. Currently, a post has been set up in front of the campus of the Pertiwi College of Foreign Languages (STBA).

Cici expressed her disappointment over the inadequate handling of flooding problems in Jakarta. In fact, DKI Jakarta's budget is quite large.

"For years, DKI's budget has been very large to deal with flooding. How come it has never been resolved with just one flood problem. Please help," he said.

Head of the Jakarta Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Data and Information Center Mohamad Yohan said that South Jakarta and East Jakarta were the areas most affected by flooding in Jakarta on Tuesday (3/4/2025). The height of the water in the two areas reached more than three meters.

Yohan said the current flood was mostly caused by the overflowing Ciliwung River. Over the past two days, there has also been massive high-intensity rain in the West Java region which has caused rivers in Jakarta to overflow.

"The cause of the flood in Jakarta is high rainfall and the overflowing of the Pesanggrahan River, Krukut River, and Ciliwung River," he said.

On Tuesday at 16:00 WIB, the water level in the Ciliwung River reached 80 centimeters, so that it was at Alert 4 flood status. Although the status of the Katulampa Dam has been lowered from Alert 1 to Alert 4, residents living in areas through which the Ciliwung River flows must remain vigilant, considering the potential for rain in the Bogor, Depok, and Jakarta areas.

The Katulampa Dam is located on the Ciliwung River in Bogor City, West Java. From the Katulampa Dam, some of the Ciliwung River water is channeled through the sluice gate to Kali Baru Timur. From East Bogor, the water then flows to Jakarta then to Cimanggis, Depok, and Cilangkap before finally flowing into the Kali Besar area, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

BPBD Jakarta recorded that there were 122 RTs and two roads in Jakarta that were submerged in floods as of Tuesday (3/4/2025) at 16:00 WIB. This number has increased from 105 RTs on Tuesday afternoon. The submerged areas are in West Jakarta, South Jakarta, and East Jakarta.

Meanwhile, two roads that were flooded were Jalan Basoka Raya, Joglo District, West Jakarta, with a water level reaching 50 centimeters. Next, Jalan Puri Mutiara, Cilandak Village, South Jakarta, with a water level of 1 meter.

BPBD noted that 1,792 people were displaced due to the disaster. The evacuees came from Kampung Melayu Village, Bidara Cina Village, Cawang Village, Pejaten Timur Village, and Cilandak Timur Village. The largest number of evacuees came from Pejaten Timur Village, reaching 750 people.

According to Yohan, the flood trend in Jakarta is quite fluctuating. He gave an example of flooding in Kampung Melayu which had receded, then rose again due to the overflow of the Ciliwung River. This unstable condition makes it difficult for BPBD to predict the next situation.

Even so, Yohan said, BPBD has deployed all personnel to handle the flood this time. In addition, his party is coordinating with other related parties, such as the Jakarta Water Resources (SDA) Agency, the Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency (Gulkarmat), and the TNI and Polri.

Floods also hit Tangerang City, Banten. Tangerang City BPBD recorded 13 flood and inundation points in Tangerang City. The worst situation occurred in the Ciledug Indah area, namely with a flood height of more than 1 meter.

Head of Emergency and Logistics Division of Tangerang City BPBD, Andia S Rahman said, the flood occurred due to rain that was evenly distributed in the Jabodetabek area and the overflowing of the Angke River.

"(In) Tangerang City, there is a water queue. On the Angke River, there is a shipment from Bogor. These two conditions caused the Ciledug area and several eastern areas (of Tangerang) to overflow this morning. So, the ones to pay attention to for the past two days are the Cisadane River and the Angke River," said Andia.

Meanwhile, flooding in several areas in South Tangerang varies in height, ranging from 20 centimeters to 120 centimeters (cm). As a result of this flood, 1,960 families were affected.

Based on the report of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of South Tangerang City (Tangsel), flooding in Tangsel occurred in 11 locations. The cause was high rainfall intensity and the overflowing of the Serua River.

"There are 11 flood points in South Tangerang due to heavy rain and the overflowing of the Serua River," said the Commander of the Tangsel City BPBD Task Force, Dian Wiriyawan.

Of the 11 points, on Tuesday afternoon there were only 3 points that had not receded, namely on Jalan Ceger Taman Mangu, Kavling Bulak Pondok Kacang Timur, and the Maharta Complex.

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) believes that the floods that submerged areas in Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi were sent from Puncak, Bogor. The water level reached 1 meter to 4 meters.

"The average flood in Jakarta and its surroundings (is) sent from Puncak, Bogor, all of which is channeled into the Ciliwung River Basin Area," said the Deputy for Meteorology at BMKG, Guswanto.

According to Guswanto, the heavy rain that poured down on Bogor City on Sunday (2/3/2025) night was considered extreme. This is because, based on monitoring data from the BMKG meteorology team, the thickness of the rain intensity was more than 110 millimeters (mm) per day.

BMKG assessed that the extreme rainfall allowed the Ciliwung watershed to overflow. The overflow became a flash flood that hit several sub-districts in Bogor City and Bogor Regency and was carried downstream to Jakarta, Depok, Bekasi, and Tangerang.

Flooding in Bekasi City, whose highest water level reached 4 meters, according to Guswanto, occurred because the area received water from the upstream of the Ciliwung River Basin. Then, added to that, there was heavy rain with an intensity of 165-208 mm per day in several areas in Bekasi.

"Today in Sumur Batu, Bekasi, rain is almost 208 mm per day. This is due to the significant growth of convective clouds on the cyclonic meso-circulation scale which results in a slowdown in wind and so on," said Guswanto.

However, the flooding in Jakarta and its surrounding areas is still relatively low compared to the flooding that occurred in 2020. At that time, BMKG recorded that local rainfall in Jakarta was very extreme with a thickness of 377 mm per day.

However, BMKG is coordinating with related institutions to discuss the need for weather modification operations as an effort to control potential rain and support the acceleration of disaster impact recovery.

Because, in the period of March 4-11, 2025, high intensity rain still has the potential to occur in the Jabodetabek area. BMKG detected an increase in atmospheric activity that has the potential to cause heavy rain to pour over most areas in western Java in the next week, including Jakarta Province.

Guswanto also asked the public to always monitor weather condition information regularly to anticipate the impact of the ever-evolving atmospheric dynamics.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Rano Karno said that the dredging of reservoirs and rivers is included in his 100-day work program with Pramono Anung. With the National Strategic Program (PSN) for flood control, his party will focus more on fixing the Ciliwung.

According to Rano, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government received a fairly large budget from the Central Government related to PSN for flood control. This is expected to accelerate flood management which has so far been hampered by regional budget limitations.

However, Rano did not specify how much budget was allocated to address the flood problem in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Provincial Government has started a dredging program in 17 rivers and canals to prevent flooding. The dredging involved 1,000 officers using 122 units of heavy equipment and 84 units of other supporting equipment.

Rano said that dredging will continue until August 2025, and this activity will continue even though it is the month of Ramadan.

Dredging is done periodically and not only once every six months. In this dredging, it is targeted that 1 million cubic meters of mud sediment can be transported.

In addition, Rano asked Jakarta residents living in flood-prone areas to be willing to be relocated to flats (rusun). Moving to rusun is the most realistic solution to prevent residents from being affected by flooding.

However, he admitted that residents' interest in moving to flats was still low even though they had been affected by floods many times.