World Bank wants community help in flood management

Andreas D. Arditya in the Jakarta Post:  Resident participation is crucial in flood prevention and mitigation in urban areas, regional policymakers were told in a recent workshop on flood risk management and urban resilience in Jakarta.

The workshop was held by the World Bank with the support of South Korea and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).  It was attended by around 50 representatives from seven Asian nations: China, Indonesia, Laos, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Abhas K. Jha, the leader of the disaster risk management program for the World Bank’s East Asia and the Pacific Region, said that policymakers had to strike a balance between structural and non-structural measures to fight flooding.

“The main issue in non-structural flood risk management is the engagement of the people at risk and encouragement of citizen preparedness. Communication is, therefore, a key element,” Abhas told the workshop.

He said that non-structural measures were less expensive, because they did not require extensive investment in hard-engineered infrastructures — as did structural measures — instead relying instead on a good understanding of flood hazards....

A flood in Indonesia around 1915-1918, from the Tropenmuseum Collection