The year of 2020 begins with flooding around Jabodetabek, in which it leads into one of the greatest flooding in Jakarta of all times. The flooding started due to the heavy rain that occurs since the night of New Year's Eve. Not only heavy, but the rain was long-lasting and it continues to drizzle as the year changes.
This incident brought numerous misfortune for those living around the area, especially residents of Jakarta. Many residents were forced to evacuate from their home due to the fact that their houses are not safe and are not feasible to live in as the flood reaches 1,5 meters in some areas such as Rawajati, Pancoran, Jakarta Selatan.
Due to the misfortune, the Governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan faces a lot of backlash, as it is his job to manage the flooding in this city. With the condition of flood worsening, it is easy to point fingers, but the governor is not the only one at fault. There are numerous factors that result to this problem, and one specific factor are the litter that are clogging the waterways.
Have you ever litter on the street because there are no trash cans around? Thinking that, maybe someone will pick it up. That is one of the biggest causes of how flooding can occur, it is something as small as not taking care of the environment. As a result of small litters that accumulate around the streets of Jakarta, made its way to the sewerage, clogging the system. Not only in the sewerage, but litter often accumulates in rivers as well, thus when heavy rain falls, the water flow is not smooth, in which its results to overflowing the rivers as well as the sewerage.
With this fact in hand, awareness regarding this problem is not something that needs to be achieved, because people in this city knows about it already. But what people do not know a lot about is how to solve the said problem. Â
Therefore, these are the ways on how to prevent the massive flooding that greets us in the beginning of the year. Â
1. Be aware of your environment
In order for our surrounding to not drown in flood, we need to be aware of the surroundings we are in. This can be done simply by not throwing away trash on the streets as much as possible, or when you see litter or trash around your neighborhood, take the time to pick it up and dispose of it in its proper place.
2. Bring a small trash bag wherever you go
There are often times where we are not able to find any trash cans, thus due to it we chose to litter instead. To prevent this problem, it is recommended to bring a small trash bag to put your trash in, or when you forgot to bring it, you can keep small trash such as snack wrapping, or shopping receipts inside of your pockets and dispose it once you found a trash can.
3. Participate!
In order to keep our environment clean, we can help by participating as well as organizing a clean up session with people around the neighborhood. Not only our neighborhood, we can also participate in river cleaning that occurs around our area.
Above are small, simple steps that we can do in order to make a change, because it takes two sides in order to make a difference. The start can happen anytime, and if it's not us to start the movement, who else will?
