Floods In Indonesia

The floods in Indonesia are a big annual problem for the poorest areas along rivers especially in East Java along the Bengawan Solo. The impact is not only on their houses, but their lands, their plantation fields, their animals and also the infrastructure within the villages. This means that every year they have to rebuild, renovate and replant all that has been destroyed due to the floods, leading to big financial losses. The villages near the Solo River are not protected for future floods, and few or very little changes have been done to adapt the villages to cope with future floods. Floods have been more frequent and voluminous during the last decade, most likely because of deforestation. This is one of the biggest reasons why the Bengawan Solo has floods yearly. The deforestation makes the erosion of the land in- crease and the impacts from the floods are then bigger. The resulting mudslides caused by deforestation are another impact causing a lot of problems. To avoid the erosion of the land and the mudslides, trees and other plants with long root systems can be planted along the river bank to decrease the floods, the natural reasons such as rain and the morphology of the river is one factor of the floods. People in the villages are used to the floods and don ́t see the floods as a problem, and they have adapted their lives, houses and crops to the yearly floods. But in my view the houses need to be better adapted to the floods, for example when the flood hits the house, the toilets also overflows, so the interior as well as the exterior has to be better adapted to avoid as many impacts as possible.

Although, flooding is large-scale global problem, there are only three “key players” or agents that can either make or break a ...

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...ages drainage canals has to be built and dug all over the village, so when the floods hit the village the water can run freely through the drainage canals, this to lessen the impact on the roads and the cultivation field, in order to avoid too much damage. This is a cheap solution to avoid some damages caused by the floods. Since many villagers use the river for washing, cleaning, disposal of garbage, and sometimes as a toilet, I propose to build small public facilities where the villagers can wash clothes, wash their dishes, take a bath, dispose of garbage, and also provide toilets. Also, there should be a proposal for the drainage to be dug next to plantation fields so the drainage canals can be used as irrigation together with the drainage canals. There should be drainage along the roads and pathways as well, to lessen the impact when the flood hits the villages.