Floods in Jakarta: Call for climate change awareness
During the 2020 flash flood, the author’s home was flooded.
Every New Year’s Eve, when most people make up their minds, my family prays that January doesn’t flood and submerge our home in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Our two storey house is steps away from the dirty brown Onke River which has been shedding sediment and getting shallower over time making it a notorious flood source.
Flood intensity has gotten worse over the past three years. In early January 2020, overnight heavy rains sparked flash floods that flooded the city with its tallest flood to date: 5 feet, 7 inches. That’s five inches taller than the average Indonesian citizen. The major flood nearly submerged our first floor.
Flooding is now no longer an annual disaster that we can only expect around January. During 2022, there will be floods almost every month. Even in the dry season, heavy rains pour down.
Sometimes, as I watch the flood from my balcony, I wonder: Is my family, friends, or Indonesians in general aware that climate change is causing flooding to get worse?
“It’s the Jakarta provincial government’s fault,” my father used to say. “Their urban planning was poor, allowing inappropriate infrastructure development and reducing the area of vegetation that absorbs stormwater.” My mom always agreed, “Yes, when we first moved here in 1987, our house There are lots of green spaces around the district.”
I used to agree with my parents – until I learned about climate change.
“No, it’s climate change,” is my response now. “It brought more rain and worsened the flooding,” I explained, but my parents were unwavering. Maybe it’s because rapid infrastructure development is more visible to them than climate change.
A neighbor’s home was flooded, photographed from the author’s second floor.
It seems like my friends don’t know who or what to blame and just accept the situation. In early October 2022, it rained heavily almost every day, causing some roads and areas in Jakarta to be flooded. I remember a picture of a friend, her knees almost flooded, and she was in shock. Another friend walks through flooded streets on video, asking, “Why does it keep flooding?” Another shared a view from her car’s dashboard showing cars lined up in traffic, Wondering when she will be home.
So, again, I wonder: do they know this is due to climate change?
Climate change is causing more frequent flooding.this Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that a warming climate will experience more intense precipitation events due to increased water vapor. Thus, a warming climate increases the risk of flooding.
The Indonesian National Disaster Agency has observed that in the past 10 years, 98% Natural hazards in Indonesia are hydrometeorological hazards that may be exacerbated by climate change. The agency also reported Floods are the country’s most frequent disaster in 2022.have 188 deaths and 1 million families destroyed and submerged.
These facts should easily wake up the citizens of Jakarta to action on climate change.We shouldn’t wait until the effects get worse, like Devastating floods in Pakistan September 2022, when 1,500 death toll exceeds 2.1 million households be destroyed.
However, it’s not as easy as I thought.
Lack of education on climate change makes it hard to empathize. The challenge of expressing the climate crisis in Indonesia is the lack of social awareness of the climate crisis, its causes, what are its effects, and how it affects human life, Dianparamita sayson behalf of the international environmental organization 350.org.
Indonesia now Education Minister Nadiem Makarim also admitted The country’s education system remains unsuccessful in creating awareness among students and parents about the importance of climate change.
Indonesian media also underreports climate change.
So it’s no surprise that despite feeling the effects of climate change, Indonesia ranks first among climate change deniers because YouGov Survey 2020 show.
Although the government has several climate change agendas such as set emission reduction targets, there is a problem with the execution. For example, it continues to increase coal production, which contributes to climate change.Indonesia plans to produce from 687 million tons in 2022 695 million tons Coal this year.
If more Indonesians understand climate change, we will have the power of the people to urge the government to get the climate agenda right. Therefore, raising awareness about climate change in the country is crucial. Together we can review national climate change learning strategies. Individually, we can contribute by normalizing the climate change conversation.
Conversations with parents made me realize the need to talk about climate change consistently. They may not entirely agree that climate change has increased the frequency of floods, but I’ve been feeling a slight shift lately, especially with my dad.
He started listening to me more carefully when I explained climate change. He even asked me one day if climate change was really man-made. (Yes.) So, I think I’ve managed to get him curious about the topic. Curiosity is the first step to learning and empowerment.
Sarah Unihal Saputra She is a graduate student in Sustainability Management at Columbia University.
