Project 365

It just happened that I was still registered to the newsletter of the Brisbane‘s Mayor, Campbell Newman. I was practically surprised to read a number of measures and initiatives he had done or was planning to do to raise awareness about the possible flood in Brisbane and to make its residents better prepared for the disaster.

+ Completed and made public local flood studies.
+ Made free flood reports available online for individual properties.
+ Made free flood flag maps available online with comprehensive information relating to flooding.
+ Installed flood warning lights on ‘at risk’ roads.
+ Implemented tough planning controls to prohibit development below the one in 100 year flood mark.
+ Conducted public education campaigns to raise awareness of the risks of suburban flooding in Brisbane.
+ Introduced a free SMS service (Early Warning Network) for Brisbane residents to advise them in advance of bad weather in their local area.
+ Funded a flood buyback scheme to purchase worst affected homes.
+ Investing more than $50m each year to reduce the impacts of flooding including desilting at 100 locations this financial

I mean, come on, Brisbane hasn’t experience any significant flooding since 1974, but they wanted to make sure that this disaster would never repeat again. So as soon as the increase in rainfalls was detected, they took some steps to mitigate flooding.

The approach that he took is EXTREMELY different than that of the governor of Jakarta, who did nothing to prevent the annual infamous Jakarta’s flood from happening. Even so, he blamed the weather for it. Maybe he should learn from Mayor Newman, or even better, the Dutch!!!

This is a video titled “Jakarta in Jeopardy”. It was uploaded about 2 years ago but I’ve never watched this til now. It’s very interesting. I always heard about how Jakarta could be sinking in few years time and I didn’t know if this argument came from experts / scientists or from people speculating on those issues 😛

But in this video, my doubts were cleared. Jakarta is indeed sinking. The city is expected to be about 1 meter lower than the current position — thanks to the ground water extraction done by most households and business as well as industrial giants in Jakarta. When a city develops, it gets heavier. As much water from the ground gets extracted, the whole city gets pushed downwards. So this can also be the reason why Jakarta is flooded during the time when no rains fall. Because of the sinking Jakarta — it sinks below sea level, unfortunately.

The flood that frequently occurs in Jakarta is also caused by two main reasons: urban development and rubbish. Development can’t seem to stop, every 2 years I go back to Jakarta, I always see new huge buildings or malls built. It fascinates me how fast Jakarta grows. But unfortunately, the rate of Jakarta’s maintenance runs slower than its development. And our government doesn’t seem to care about this. Can we safe our Jakarta?

According to Wikipedia, The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 20% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, with 50% of its land lying less than one metre above sea level. But somehow, the canals and rivers are clean, free of garbage, and most importantly have never caused any floods for the past 40-50 years! Amazing, isn’t it?

I myself think that Jakarta is not “livable” anymore. It’s waaaaay too crowded! Let’s just move to another city then 😛