Anies And The Irony Of The Jakarta Flood

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Saturday, February 22, DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan exhibited a polished portrait of public space facilities. The photo with the theme "The New Face of Jakarta" was exhibited on his social media accounts, starting from the pedestrian bridge (JPO) to the revitalized sidewalks.

Look at these photos, there is blue in the Jakarta sky. That is a routine sight in Jakarta in recent weeks. Invite friends, neighbors, and relatives .... walking, cycling to enjoy #WajahBaruJakarta. Enjoy the weekend, hopefully always in His blessings. pic.twitter.com/xNQqu7iVcd

- Anies Baswedan (@aniesbaswedan) February 22, 2020

That night, heavy rains flushed Jakarta, causing flooding everywhere. Sunday, February 22 at 12.00 WIB, at least 125 RWs were flooded, with the most affected area in East Jakarta.

In fact, Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) was flooded and submerged several medical devices there. Fortunately, this does not interfere with patient care there.

This is the damage of the Radiology Dept. of RSCM: 1. Stationary xray ceiling2. Fluoroscopy3. Mammography4. Stationary xray floor 5. Xray6 mobile. 2 units of ct scan7. 1 unit of ultra sound 'accuson' submerged8. * The entire PACS system in the reading room is suspected to be submerged * 9. * 1 unit of submerged siemens MRI * pic.twitter.com/hjTCxXJ9PX

- MasEkeph (@MustEkeph) February 23, 2020

Jakarta DPRD Chairman Prasetio Edi Marsudi was disturbed because the flood was the first time he reminisced about RSCM and the elite area which is right behind the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH).

Prasetio inspected the area. At the location, he asked a number of officers from the Water Resources (SDA) Office to dismantle the sidewalk in front of LBH Jakarta. This sidewalk has just been revitalized by DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan.

DPRD Chairman Prasetio checks the sidewalks and waterways around the RSCM area (Photo: Special)

Disassembly is done using a drill. This is because there is no valve to open the water channel control.

After opening, it turned out that the waterways were clogged due to the revitalization work on the sidewalks by the Bina Marga Agency. This is irony. The reason is, so far, sidewalk revitalization has become a strategic policy echoed by DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan.

"The DKI Provincial Government lacks coordination. It should be coordinating from Bina Marga to SDA. If the impact (flooding) is like this, it means (revitalization) is only a casing," said Prasetio some time ago.

Apart from RSCM, the area that is quite deep is also in Kelapa Gading. Many netizens have complained that their residence in Kelapa Gading was more severely affected by the floods than the January 1 flood yesterday.

Meanwhile, if you look at Instagram on social media, the activities of DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan yesterday visited the flood area in Cempaka Putih, as well as several floodgates.

Prasetio considered that Anies and his staff did not anticipate floods. "Not after the disease arrives, just grumpy, not done, boss," he said.

In line with that, PSI faction member Justin Adrian considered the DKI flood anticipation program to be just running on the spot. Because, from 2018 to 2020, the PUPR Ministry cannot carry out normalization because the DKI Provincial Government does not want to acquire the land.

Anies, said Justin, could no longer escape and argued that Jakarta's floods were caused by extreme weather from the upstream. This is because BMKG noted that heavy rains occurred in the Jakarta and Bekasi areas. Meanwhile, the Bogor and Depok areas only rained lightly, so the height of the floodgates for Depok and Katulampa Bogor was on standby status 4 (normal).

"From the data on rainfall and the height of the floodgates, it is clear that today's flood was due to local rain. Areas such as Menteng, Tebet and Kuningan, which are usually safe, are experiencing flooding today. The governor has no reason to blame the rain in Bogor and cannot throw the problem at the central government, ”said Justin.