Page 17 - EDITION 1 APRIL 2020

MEDIA JAYA EDITION | 01 2020

Flood History in Batavia
TOP REPORT Didnt Set a City in A Jakarta is set on a flood-prone development was suspended as the whole city were flooded.
1621 : The first flooding under the leadership of Jan Pieterszoon Coen. The city
If Only “Coen”

1654 : The second flooding under the Dutch occupation era, when the Governor Joan
Maetsuycker was leading the Batavia. The area of The Old Town (Kota Tua) were
affected for more than three weeks.
Swampy Land area. Almost 40% of its area sits 1872 : Flooding hit in the beginning of General Governor James Louden’s leadership
under the sea level.
and paralyzed the elite Harmoni and its surrounding areas.
1893 : Flood paralyzed the lives of the city for more than a month. At that time, General
Governor Carel HA Van der Wijck was in charged.

1909 : Perpetual rains for more than a week set the flooding and paralyzed
Batavia city. The Dutch East Indies would then planned to
build Bendung Katulampa (Katulampa dam) to control
floodwater from the upstreams.
1918 : Not only damaged facilities, this
heaviest and worst flood also triggered
disease outbreaks.
1932 : Occured for almost a week before
the independence day, this heavy flooding
had inundated Batavia when its people
were fasting during Ramadhan month.

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Infographic/Fandy A

been a major threat to this so called ter inundated all areas of Gajah Mada, ments which resulted in a gradually
“Queen of The East” city. Even when Hayam Wuruk and Harmoni. declining land.
School buses’ its name changed to Jakarta. There In 1895, government of Dutch East “Jakarta is a low-lying area. Ap-
operation were
cancelled when the were at least 66 governor-generals Indies had designed a massive plan proximately 40 percent of its area set
flood hit Jakarta.
of Dutch East Indies (Hindia Belanda), in order to prevent flooding in Bata- below the sea level. It is also experi-
3 mayors and 13 governors who have via. That grand plan included a com- encing land subsidence,” said Mu-
Credit ruled, none succeed in prevent flood prehensive development from the hammad Fakhrudin, a Limnology Re-
Dharma W. in Jakarta. upstream areas in Puncak to down- searcher at Indonesian Institute of
In fact, Jakarta has long been stream areas in Estuaria, North Ja- Sciences (LIPI).
prone to flooding since the Taru- karta. Besides its location in the basin
manegara era. One of the flood cas- Severe flood in Jakarta also oc- area, Jakarta is also geomorpholog-
n one of the visit records from the land. Countless of merchant ships via as a copy of his own hometown in es were recorded in Tugu inscription cured in 1932, on January 9th-10th. ically a flood plain, which is a region
book Suma Oriental, Portuguse ex- were coming, bringing the port to life. Dutch. He asked for Simon Stevin’s at North Jakarta, which now stored in That time, the flood was caused by formed by sedimentation during a
Iplorer Tome Pires described Sun- Centuries after Pires came in 1513, help, a famous city planner, to design Jakarta History Museum. the heavy rain with the intensity of 150 flood. Flood plains are generally locat-
da Kelapa port at the mouth of Cili- in May 30th 1619 the big and bustling a port city, along with its castles, ca- In that inscription, it tells that King mm/day. From that flooding, all peo- ed around the streams that are mean-
wung river as a bustling, big port. The port has evolved to be what is known nals and impressive views in the cen- Purnawarman who led the kingdom at ple who lived in Sabang street and dering or located at the point where a
area was swampy. When rainy days as Batavia. It was Jan Pieterszoon tral of the city. that time had dug Chandrabagha river surrounding areas could not leave tributary meets a major river.
came, that part of Sunda Kingdom Coen who built the city. At that time, Unfortunately, Batavia has set on (in Bekasi) and Gomati river (Kali Mati their houses and forced to stay on the The 13 rivers which flow across
would usually be inundated by the wa- he managed to steal the Jayakarta a quite sloping shore area surrounded in Tangerang) for 12 kilometers in or- roofs. the city made these flood plain ar-
ter from Ciliwung river. and Banten Empire. This General of by swamps. The canals were clogged, der to prevent flooding. eas spread throughout the city. “So it
Although it was swampy and eas- Vereenigde Oostindische Compaigne the rivers were muddy and sediment- According to numbers of historical Flood Basin is quite understandable if the poten-
ily flooded, the Europian traders had (VOC) along with his troops had burnt ed to the bottoms of the canals. Dur- records, the worst flooding in Batavia tial of flooding in the Jakarta is indeed
no doubt in giving their power in one down mosques, the natives’ vilages ing high tides, the area would be flood- occured in 1872. The flood caused the Geologically, Jakarta is a flood ba- very high,” said Fakhrudin.
of the biggest ports, located on the and palaces. ed and filled with garbages. sluisbrug (floodgate) in front of the Is- sin area. This basin was formed from
west side of north coast in Java is- Coen has ambitiously built Bata- Since its development, flood has tiqlal Mosque broken. The floodwa- young, thick but uncosolidated sedi- nis