KOICA Establishes Real-Time Flood Early Warning System in Indonesia

Agreement Signed with Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Housing
Promoting Green and Digital New Deal for Climate Change Response and Disaster Mitigation

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA signed a Record of Discussion (RD) on the "Citarum River Flood Early Warning System Construction Phase 2 Project" with the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Jakarta, Indonesia, on the 28th (local time).

The Citarum River in Indonesia is about 300 km long and supplies 80% of Jakarta's domestic water, providing water resources and electricity to 25 million metropolitan residents. However, due to concentrated rainfall during the rainy season and increasing flood disasters caused by climate change, about 15 million residents living in nearby areas suffer flood damage every year.

Indonesia's flood information management system is very inadequate. Basic systems such as observation data collection, real-time monitoring, and application of prediction models are not established, so even related agencies such as local residents, the Meteorological Agency, the Disaster Prevention Agency, and dam management offices could not identify flood inundation information in advance.

Accordingly, KOICA is investing a budget of 10 million USD from this year until 2024 to help the Indonesian government establish a preventive flood response system by supporting △ integrated flood management plan establishment △ flood early warning system development and infrastructure construction △ expansion and improvement of flood forecast models △ capacity-building programs (online training, local education, resident evacuation drills).

From 2014 to 2017, the first phase established Indonesia's first real-time flood early warning system in the upper Citarum River area, achieving results such as reducing casualties and displaced persons by more than 10% compared to before the project. KOICA plans to expand the achievements of the first phase to the entire Citarum River basin through this second phase project.

In addition, through the construction of a real-time flood early warning system, rainfall and water level information will be monitored, and by issuing early warnings using predicted information, sufficient evacuation and pre-response time for residents will be secured. KOICA plans to consult with the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Housing to establish a preventive flood response system.

KOICA supports Indonesia's top national agenda of climate change response and national disaster management system establishment to ensure the safety of Indonesian residents. This project is promoted as a representative New Southern Policy project in the environmental IT field, and it is expected to yield good results in terms of spreading the Korean government's Green and Digital New Deal.

Jung Hoe-jin, head of KOICA Indonesia Office, said, "KOICA aims to reduce flood disasters in Indonesia by establishing an accurate and rapid flood early warning system, contributing to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 (Safe and Sustainable Cities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action)."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.