Anies And Jokowi Who Have Different Opinions Regarding The Causes Of Flooding

Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan. (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said that one of the causes of flooding in early 2020 was due to ecosystem and ecological damage. In addition, he said, it was also due to the awareness of the public who did not pay attention to the environment and there were still many people who littered.

As is known, heavy rain flushed Jakarta from December 31, 2019 to January 1, 2020. As a result, Jakarta and its surroundings were flooded. Not only damaged buildings and public facilities, but also claimed 16 lives.

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan disagrees with Jokowi about the causes of the floods. He denied Jokowi's statement about the 'New Year's flood' due to the production of garbage that was dumped carelessly.

"Halim, as far as I know, doesn't have a lot of rubbish. But yesterday's airport was unable to function. Is there trash at the airport? I don't think so," he said, in Kampung Pulo, Jatinegara, East Jakarta, Thursday, January 2.

Anies said, at this time what had to be done was checking in several areas that had experienced flooding. Regarding the causes of flooding, if you pay close attention, flooding actually occurs due to extreme weather as predicted by the BMKG.

"BMKG data shows places with high volume of rainwater, there are extreme floods," he said.

Instead of blaming rubbish or people's behavior when disposing of garbage, Anies admitted that currently he only wants to focus on saving residents affected by flooding.

Anies emphasized that the flood management has not been completed until residents can return to their homes. He also appealed to all parties to continue working until all public facilities function as before and community activities in Jakarta can return to normal.

After all the evacuations have been carried out, he said, the regional governments and the central government can sit together to collect data and talk about flood prevention.

"Because the contributors (floods) vary. There are areas that contribute due to rainfall problems, some have contributed due to the size of the channel, some have contributed due to other factors. So this is not a single variable, it is multiple variables," he said.

Previously, President Jokowi said that measures to deal with floods that hit a number of areas in Jakarta and satellite cities must be handled jointly by the central and regional governments.

Jokowi assessed that ecological damage and lack of public indifference by littering were a factor in the disaster earlier this year.

"Some are caused by ecosystem damage, existing ecological damage, but some are due to our mistakes in throwing garbage everywhere. Many things," said Jokowi.