The floods caused by important rains on Monday March 3 and Tuesday March 4 in Djakarta left at least two dead and thousands of victims, and led to partial paralysis of the Indonesian capital. If this assessment, which could increase, remains much lower than the 70 dead recorded during serious floods in 2020, it reveals the persistent challenge that the megalopolis faced, due to the subsidence of the soil, due to the wild pumping of the groundwater, and the rise in the level of the seas under the effect of global warming.
Just over 31 million people live in the Grand Djakarta, which brings together five satellite cities and is crossed by countless rivers and canals. The Indonesian Meteorological Agency said that high intensity rains could extend until March 11.
East of the capital, eight of the twelve of Bekasi arrondissements, one of the five satellite cities of Djakarta, which alone has 2.5 million inhabitants, were flooded. Tuesday, a torrent of muddy water overwhelmed the ground floor of a giant shopping center, the Mega Bekasi Hypermall, without making a victim but forcing the occupants to take refuge in the upper floors after the collapse of a part of the bank of a neighboring stream. The incident illustrates the risks of urban overdevelopment in this city which, according to the Jakarta Postwelcomed the greatest number of projects for Grand Djakarta shopping centers between 2023 and 2025.
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