handling of community-based flood

Across Indonesia, recorded 5590 the parent river and 600 of them potentially cause flooding. Flood-prone areas covered by these rivers reach the parent 1.4 million hectares. From various studies have been conducted, the flooding-prone regions, basically due to three things. First, human activities are causing changes in the spatial occurrence and impact on natural changes.

Second, natural events such as very high rainfall, rising sea levels, storms, and sebagainya.1 Third, environmental degradation such as loss of ground cover plants in catchment areas, siltation of rivers due to sedimentation, the narrowing of the river and so on.

Flooding not only causes the rice fields were flooded and so can not be harvested and devastated housing and settlements, but also damage facilities social services and community economic public infrastructure, and even casualties.

Greater losses if the disruption of economic activity and government, even cessation. Although community participation in order to control flooding is very real. especially in emergency response activities, but the flooding causing additional financial burden countries, mainly to rehabilitate and restore damaged public parasana function.

The occurrence of a series of floods in a relatively short time and be repeated every year, demands for greater efforts to anticipate it, so the loss can be minimized.

Government efforts that are structural (structural approach), was not fully able to address the problem of flooding in Indonesia. Flood prevention, has been more focused on providing the physical building of flood control to reduce the impact of disasters.

In addition, although the non-physical policy - which generally includes participation society - in the response to flooding has been made, but not implemented properly, does not even fit the needs of society, so that its effectiveness is questionable.

Sectoral policies, centralized, and top-down without involving the community already not in accordance with the global developments that require decentralization, democracy, and participation of stakeholders, especially communities affected disaster.

The question is who is called society? How far can people participate? And at the stage where the public can participate? 

The answers to these questions, should be considered in formulate and implement policies of community participation in flood mitigation. Policy mistakes caused the various interests of the individual / group is more dominant, then the policy used for the benefit of a negative.

As a result policies established ineffective, even canceled. Thus,flood prevention are just mere physical development (structural approach), should be synergized with the construction of non-physical (non-structural approach), which provide more space for the emergence of community participation, so the result is more optimal. From the above, flood prevention policy that is physical, must be balanced with measures of non-physical, so the role of the community and other stakeholders were given the appropriate place.

In order for flood prevention is more integrative and effective, it is necessary not only coordination at the implementation level, but also at the level of policy planning, including community participation and other stakeholders. Based on the consideration that, as an institution which was assigned to coordinate the planning of development, National Development Planning Agency examines a comprehensive flood prevention policy and unbiased sectors and regions, with emphasis on community participation in flood mitigation.

source picture: beritadaerah.com