The Great Flood In Batavia In Today's History, 19 February 1918

Flood in Batavia. (Photo: geheugen.delpher.nl)

JAKARTA - Today 104 years ago, or February 19, 1918 to be exact, Batavia (now: Jakarta) was hit by a big flood. The whole area was almost submerged in flood. The losses are many. The incident made the government confused. Burgerlijke Openbare Werken (BOW) aka the Public Works Agency (PU). They failed to ward off the flood. As a result, the people in Batavia then spoofed BOW into Batavia Onder Water: Batavia under water.

Batavia is one of the cities in the archipelago that is familiar with floods. The disaster had even stuck with Batavia since the early phase of Dutch colonialism. The Governor General of the VOC, Jan Pieterszoon Coen once felt his frenzy overcoming floods.

Flood in Batavia. (Photo: geheugen.delpher.nl)

“Similarly, the flood confused the Dutch Governor-General. From Jan Pieterszoon Coen to AWL Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachoewer also failed to deal with floods in Jakarta (formerly: Batavia)," said Alwi Shahab, an important figure in the writing of Jakarta's history in Batavia Kota Flood (2009).

It is possible that Coen succeeded in establishing Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. But not by dealing with floods. It failed miserably. The failure to overcome the flood continued to the next governor general like a legacy. This condition was exacerbated by the attitude of the colonizers who only thought about profit, while ignoring the ecological aspect.

The proof is that investments that exploit forests on a large scale are carried out. They build agricultural land, plantations, and factories irresponsibly. As a result, many trees are cut down for land clearing. The results are predictable. The rain comes, the flood can't be stopped.

In the Batavia flood on February 19, 1918, for example. The flood submerged almost the entire area in Batavia. The government of the city of Batavia immediately took a stand by holding an emergency meeting. Natural losses due to flooding are quite large. Many residents of Batavia were trapped in the flood. Then, the colonial government went directly to provide assistance.

“The flood conditions that hit Batavia prompted the city council to hold a meeting on February 19, 1918, at 19.15. The meeting was opened and chaired by buurgemeester (mayor) Bischop. Present at the meeting were 11 European representatives and 3 Bumiputra representatives, while Chinese and Arab representatives were not present.”

"In the meeting, the leader of the city council first expressed his condolences to see the residents hit by the flood. Second, the help that has been done is that mothers have distributed goods and food," concluded Restu Gunawan in the book Failed Canal System (2010).