Ciliwung Riverbank Management in Jakarta

Ciliwung Riverbank Management in Jakarta

Firmansyah, Mufty Riyan

Matriculation No. 2868224
Email address: riyanmufty@gmail.com

Biographical Notes

The author holds a bachelor degree in regional and city planning from Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB) in Indonesia. He has been working as junior urban planner in Ministry of
National Planning and Development, Republic of Indonesia (BAPPENAS). His research interests
are related to urban planning and infrastructure development. He is currently pursuing his Masters
in Infrastructure Planning from University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Abstract

Ciliwung River is the longest river which passing through Jakarta and some areas in West Java
Province. As a river located in the middle of the biggest urban agglomeration in Indonesia,
Ciliwung River has become an integral part of urban water cycle in Jakarta. The river used as
source of water supply system in Jakarta and irrigation for agricultural sector in some of West Java
area. Nowadays the condition of the river is very poor due to the contamination of wastes. It makes
the level of river sedimentation is high and become one of the factors which causing flood. In order
to improve the condition of the river, the Government of Jakarta plans to revitalize the riverbank.
But in the implementation process there are many protest from the residents who live in the
riverbank area. This paper aims to discuss how the revitalization plan going on including the
participation process by the residents who live in the riverbank area.

Keywords

Ciliwung, river, Jakarta, flood, riverbank

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 Ciliwung Riverbank Management in Jakarta
Ciliwung Riverbank Management in Jakarta

Introduction

In the last decade, floods happened many times in Jakarta. The major floods occurred in 1996, 2002,
2007 and the latest one happened on January 2013, as it really ceases almost all the economic
activities in the city centre. As the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta is the most dense urban area in
the country which is populated by 9,6 million people (Statistical Centre Agency of Jakarta Province,
2010). The urbanization becomes one the factors which cause the major floodings. It stimulates
illegal settlements and land use changes in the city. Many people live in riverbank area, and their
activities often polluted the water. This condition has influence the water quality and the drainage
flow from the upstream. Thus, the riverbank management should be one of the main issues
regarding flood prevention in Jakarta.

As climate change impact seems to always be considered in urban development, Government of

Jakarta under the new governor has conducting some projects regarding city waterscape
improvements. These kind of projects are important because it has been observed that for the last
few years, many cities have been turning their waterscape, such as rivers, lakes, and beaches into an
attraction space (waterside living and new riverside promenades) in order to improve the
appearance of the city and the quality of urban life (Prominski et al., 2009). Therefore, since last
year the government has started to improve the condition of Ciliwung riverbank.

Methodology

This study discuss about the flood which come from Ciliwung River, and look at how the
community of urban poor in the riverbank encourage the residents to preserve the river. The
methodology used in this study is descriptive analyzes based on many resources which took from
literatures, reports, newspapers, and other relevant articles in websites

Ciliwung River in Jakarta

Ciliwung River is running along from the southern area outside of Jakarta (Bogor), to northern area
of Jakarta, so that the river is a part of the city of Jakarta. The length of river is approximately 119
km, with basin area of approximately 476.2 km2. The upstream part, located in Bogor, is dominated
by hilly and mountainous topography. The downstream area is generally dominated by flat
topography (Simatupang, 2009).

In decades ago, the Ciliwung River is used as a source of the water supply. Nowadays, the water
from the river is very polluted, especially in the downstream area. In Bogor, the upstream area, the
water from the river is still used as a source of the drinking water treatment plant, but mostly they
are now not used anymore. The riverbank area is inhabited approximately by 3,5 million people
(Simatupang, 2009). This dense settlement make the river contaminated mostly by domestic wastes
and the water cannot be processed into drinking water and used for irrigation.

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The high polluted water makes the river has high sedimentation. This is happened mostly is because
of the behaviour of people who live in the riverbank (Figure 1). They are polluting the water by
littering the river with their waste. This has been studied that one area of the riverbank (Kampung
Melayu, East Jakarta) with population of 58.554 people had release waste into the water of 85.781
kg/year of Nitrogen and 34.969 kg/year of Phosphorus (Sinaulan et al., 2013).

The water flow of the river is different between upstream and downstream area. The flow in the
downstream is bigger than in the upstream area. It is assume that in the upstream area is lack of
watersheds that make the water goes directly into the river without infiltration process to the ground.
There are three main points to control the flood from Ciliwung basin, which are located in
Katulampa (Bogor), Depok, and Manggarai (Jakarta). The increasing discharge in the upstream area
has been observed from the condition in Katulampa station was around 250 m3/second in the year
of 1998. However, in 2002 the discharge has been significantly increasing to be around 550
m3/second. The changes that happened in Ciliwung River indicated that the sustainability of the
river is in decline. Therefore, it is important to turn back the function of Ciliwung River in urban
water cycle of Jakarta.

Figure 1: The condition of Ciliwung riverbank in Bukit Duri area, Jakarta

(source: energitoday.com)

Reducing the Floods in Ciliwung Basin

Floods from Ciliwung basin caused by the high amount of runoff that exceeds the capacity of the
river. This is happened because of two factors, which are; the land use changes around river basin
and the water sediments in river. The flood usually occurred during January to March. There are
many discussions that the flood in Jakarta comes from the upstream of the Ciliwung basin. Based
on the rainfall data, the annual mean in the upstream is actually decreasing (Simatupang, 2009). The
flood, which occurred in 2007, was caused by the high water discharge from the Katulampa
floodgate. This event has been studied that the high water discharge through the floodgate was not
caused the increasing rainfalls.
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The land use change has been occurred on the outskirts of the basin (Figure 2). The agricultural and
forest area around the Ciliwung basin turned into residential and business area so it is reducing the
water catchment area of the city. In the year of 1993, there are around of 9.150 hectare of
agricultural changed into built-up area. Upstream part of the Ciliwung basin was supposed to be the
preserved area, yet the land use has now turned into business and residential area for the high-
income people. The land use changes, especially in the upstream area, causing the major floods so
that give impacts to the drainage plan in Jakarta, which has been revised after the flood in 1996.
The revised drainage plan should anticipate the increasing of runoff in the river, particularly in an
areas which are dominated by residential and commercial area.

Based on the flood event in 1996, the hydrography data showed that with the maximum rainfall
intensity of 250 mm, the average discharge value in Katulampa Barrage was around 400 m3/second.
However in 1998, the discharge value was reached 651 m3/second with the rainfall intensity value
of 230 mm, and in 1999 the discharge value was 610 m3/second with the rainfall intensity of 220
mm. This data shows that with the river designed capacity of 570 m3/second; Ciliwung River will
be exceeded in every 2 years time. Therefore, it is assume that the land use change influencing the
increasing amount of the water runoff discharge over time, so that causing the increasing of water
discharge runs to the downstream area.

The effort to improve the condition of the river has been executed by the government since 1991.
Nevertheless, many programs has been attempted by the government are not optimal. This year, the
government has planned several programs to improve the condition of Ciliwung River. The first
program is the river normalization. This work is attempted to reduce the sedimentation of the river
so that will increase the discharge capacity of the river. By dredging the sedimentation out of the
river, the government hopes that they will increase the runoff capacity of river from 200 m3/second
to 570 m3/second.

The river normalization program from the government is affected the residents who live in
Ciliwung riverbank. This program plan to executed since last year but there is a problem in land
acquisition. The residents who live in the riverbank do not want to leave the place. However the
government has tried to resolve the problem by planning to build flats for the residents near the
riverbank.

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Figure 2: The land use changes in Ciliwung basin from 1970 2000 (Source: Fachrul et al., 2007)

Communities in Ciliwung Riverbank

People who live in Ciliwung Riverbank are mostly in poor condition. They lack of basic needs such
as sanitation, health facilities and water supply. Many households do not have an adequate access to
clean water (Figure 3). This condition makes people using the groundwater that has already
contaminated by the polluted water from the river. The poor access to health facility and poor
environment makes people suffer many diseases.

Those poor conditions attracted some activists and volunteers to assist and help them. They
encourage people to live in a better way and care about their environment. This movement
encourages the formed of many communities among the residents. These communities try to
organize themselves to care about their living environment, including preserving the river.

Ciliwung Merdeka Community, a movement organized by the humanitarian community work

involving the residents of Bukit Duri Ciliwung riverbank. Ciliwung Merdeka Community
established since 2002 in order to face many challenges of life of residents in Bukit Duri, the
barriers, and the injustice in the social, economic, political, and cultural, poverty and uncertainty of
life in the fields of education, employment and the environment. The inhabitants of Ciliwung
riverbank in Bukit Duri area are accompanied and facilitated by Ciliwung Merdeka through
empowerment programs related to the growth of consciousness, solidarity, and self-help community
residents to be more dignified and get better life. This social organization facilitated the residents in

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building the social modality of every individuals to have knowledge on mitigate the flood threat, act
on evicted issues, and also teach the residents to prevent the HIV-AIDS and narcotics issues among
youth. From the word meaning of Merdeka which means, free from the colonialism their
objective is empowering the residents to be healthy, cheerful, independent, and able to
communicate well although they are lower class citizen.

Figure 3: The residents live in Ciliwung riverbank, Bukit Duri, lack of access to clean water
(source: i.okezone.tv)

As a social organization, they use a participation approach in order to empower the residents. They
facilitate the people not only with skill and learning-by-doing, but also using art as a medium to
strengthen the relationship between residents. The community gathers people through drama play
and music on certain days to practice, and then in every month they held an exhibition in order to
entertain other residents.

Ciliwung Merdeka try to communicate with condition of the residents which live in a constant state
of uncertainty and suffer from the marginalization of urban development that is structurally create
inequality and inhibit their ability. The residents learn about how they adapt to the flood threat,
which possibly come in every year. As people who live in riverbank, they taught to keep the
riverbank clean and environment stay healthy. The community does so through a discussion with
help by other activists consisting of urban planners, journalists, architects, sociologists, and other
professionals.

Social organization like Ciliwung Merdeka really open the minds of the residents who live in
riverbank that they can have a better living in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. They have been
through many times of evicted threats as they are often blamed for the cause of flooding in the city.

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Figure 4: Interaction between the residents in Ciliwung riverbank with the Governor of Jakarta
(source: statik.tempo.co)

Conclusion

The riverbank management of Ciliwung River is very important in order to increase the carrying
capacity of the river. This task should be solved together, not only by the government but also
including all the stakeholders such as the residents of Ciliwung riverbank and other parties who
related to the river. A comprehensive approach should be applied regarding the revitalizing program
of Ciliwung River. In order to move towards sustainability, planning and management of urban
rivers should consider the pollution loads from existing condition, as well as the land use changes in
the whole catchment area (Cullen, 1997).

The role of the community in the riverbank management has to be considered in the planning
process. This study case shows that their role is become an integral part to encourage the inhabitants
to preserve the river and surrounding environment. A strong community could influence the
planning process and even the decision making inside the process. Therefore, it is necessary that the
community development of the residents who live in the riverbank should be take account and
participate in riverbank management.

In terms of Ciliwung riverbank management, this study have some suggestions to the planning an
the implementation process, which are:

1. Fulfill the needs of the inhabitants who live in the riverbank area. The government should
provide basic needs for their neighborhood, such as water, sanitation, and health facilities.
This assistance could be included with the additional support for the existing communities
such as educational support.

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2. Increasing the water filtration in the upstream area of river. The riverbank management can
not be well-implementated, if there is high amount of runoff through the floodgate. The
flood from the river is mostly occurred by the high amount of runoff that comes from the
upstream area. Making the water catchment area in the upstream area actually can reduce
this high amount. The catchment area can be formed as; natural retention such as green
space and man-made retention such as dike or canal.
3. Improvement of coordination between local communities in riverbank areas. The
coordination is important to bring the communities as leading actors in preserving the
riverbank area.
4. Improvement of coordination between local goverment. Since the river runs through several
cities (Jakarta, Bogor, and Depok), each of the local government should be able to
cooperate. This coordination should be resulted in the allocation of effort and steps taken by
each of them.

References

Book

Davies, Wayne and David T. Herbert. 1993. Communities Within Cities: an Urban Social
Geography. London, Belhaven Press

Prominski, Martin et al. 2012. River. Space. Design. Basel, Birkhuser

Paper in a Journal

Anonymous. 2013. Analisa Banjir Jakarta Tahun 2012-2013

Cullen, Peter. 1997. Sustainable urban rivers - a contradiction in terms?

Directorate General of Water Resources, Ministry of Public Works, Republic of Indonesia. 2012.
Konsep Flood Distribution Management DAS Ciliwung

Fachrul, Melati et al., 2007. Land Use and Water Quality Relationships in the Ciliwung River Basin,
Indonesia

Nikmah, Siti. 2010. Pengabaian Pemerintah Terhadap Eksistensi Penduduk Pinggir Sungai: Wajah
Pengelolaan Sungai di Indonesia

Rosmalia, Dini. 2009. River Corridor Spatial Planning For Urban Ecotourism Development At
Ciliwung River, Jakarta

Simatupang, Maruli. 2009. Identification of Potential Effect of Illegal Residence in Floodplain and
Socio-Economic Efforts for Solution, a Case Study of Ciliwung River Basin.

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Sinaulan, Herman et al. 2013. Behaviour Analysis of Riverbank Society on Pollution of Water
Quality in Ciliwung River Downstream, Jakarta.

Web Pages

http://mkusumawijaya.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/a-flooding-call-for-conservationists/

http://bebasbanjir2025.wordpress.com/konsep-pemerintah/bpdas-citarum-ciliwung-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgP2U9S3dg4

http://www.urb.im/blog/rtjk/130712i