BOTTO-UP FLOOD MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON LIVELIHOOD IN JAKARTA

Abstract

The past research illustrates top-down flood management in Jakarta since the colonial era 400 years ago. One of the common flood managements offered by Jakarta’s local government is through a river rehabilitation project, evicting riverbank settlements. By taking a bottom-up approach, this qualitative research aims to reveal the bottom-up flood management practices conducted by three kampungs in north Jakarta: Kampung Tongkol, Kampung Lodan, and Kampung Krapu, organized by KAKC (Komunitas Anak Kali Ciliwung/Ciliwung Sub-River Community). In response to the eviction threat, KAKC proposed a “Penataan Kampung (Kampung Maintenance)” concept instead of eviction. This effort is not only to protect them from eviction but also to be part of the city’s flood management as a whole. This paper presents the existing flood management conducted and the upcoming practices designed by KAKC. Recently, numerous development programs, including flood management, often transformed the source of livelihoods, and that transformation significantly impacted the livelihood security of vulnerable groups. Therefore, KAKC and its community feared not only losing their house but also their workplace as their source of living. Losing both house and a source of living would significantly worsen the financial situation and well-being of the already poor households. The research’s findings were drawn from field visits with ethnography methods, photo elicitation, in-depth interviews, and random small discussion sessions with KAKC members and the inhabitants of three kampungs. This research found that flood management practices by KAKC illustrate an unconventional approach as an alternative to common flood management derived from hydrologists’ ideas, which is dominant with big infrastructures such as canal systems, dredging, clearing, and normalization of river projects. It proves that KAKC, as a local community, have their own approach and depicts its crucial role in the development process. KAKC practices in flood management illustrate more active and quasi-participation instead of passive. Lastly, flood management and livelihoods are mutually interconnected and impact each other.