Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto\u2019s giant sea wall<\/p>\n
<\/a>, set to begin construction in September and planned to encompass the whole northern coast of the island of Java. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, many Jakartans have turned to smaller-scale solutions, including redesigning their homes to better adapt to flooding.<\/p>\n
Documentary film-maker Aditya Megantara is among them. Mr Aditya, 40, has lived in the flood-prone area of Pondok Bambu in East Jakarta since childhood. He said that almost every time it rained heavily, his house would flood.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I had this dream, that if I ever built a house I would figure out a way for it not to flood,\u201d Mr Aditya told The Straits Times on Jan 25.<\/p>\n
His dream finally began to take shape in 2020, when he was working on a documentary about the massive flooding that struck Jakarta around the start of the year. Part of the documentary highlighted a house in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, that was specifically designed as an \u201canti-flood\u201d house. <\/p>\n
With its floor raised above ground, it is a modern take on the traditional \u201crumah panggung\u201d \u2013 stilt houses once common in the coastal areas of Jakarta and throughout Indonesia. <\/p>\n
At the time, Mr Aditya was already planning to build a house on an empty lot behind his childhood home. But after working on the documentary, he engaged the architect of the Kelapa Gading house to design a similar \u201crumah panggung\u201d for him. <\/p>\n
Rather than raising the floor to avoid flooding, Mr Aditya left the 1.5m space between his house and the ground empty. This allows water to flow beneath and be absorbed back into the soil instead of merely diverting it elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Since completing the house in 2023, there have been no major floods in the area until last week, when water inundated the street outside; even so, Mr Aditya has noticed other advantages.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the house is not touching the ground, it feels drier and less damp. So I feel like I\u2019ve had fewer colds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/763d9db0dcade7ed27b7edcac09a51c835c742becdbef1412c77344740fab517.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Flood waters entered Mr Aditya Megantara’s old house in January 2020.<\/p>\n
PHOTO: ADITYA MEGANTARA <\/p>\n
Mr Yu Sing, the house\u2019s architect and founder of architectural design studio Akanoma, said the design allows home owners to respond to flooding without \u201conly saving themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of housing developments in Jakarta claim to be flood-free, but it\u2019s only because they\u2019ve raised the land so high,\u201d he told ST. \u201cThey might avoid flooding for a while, but they end up causing floods in lower areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3838729f6ba5a8eaf1fd9017cd9b01db79bcfd948dfad08a44e9bfd23f0e2ef1.webp\")
<\/p>\n
He said he came up with the idea as a way to build a house that would not flood, while also providing a catchment for the surrounding areas. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the long term, we hope that more and more houses follow this example, so that even if even more areas become flooded, the houses will be safe, and there will be more room for water infiltration,\u201d he said, adding that he has already designed five houses in the last 10 years with the concept in Greater Jakarta. <\/p>\n
Assistant Professor Herlily, who specialises in architecture and urban planning at the University of Indonesia, said that houses like Mr Aditya\u2019s should be part of a wider push to turn Jakarta into a \u201csponge city\u201d \u2013 a city designed to better absorb heavy rainfall. <\/p>\n
She added that while stilt houses are a good individual solution to the flooding problem, and one that wealthier residents should adopt, not all Jakartans are able to follow suit due to financial or other constraints. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor many residents, the only option is to raise the floor level by backfilling, or, if they have the funds, to add a second floor so that at least their valuables will be safe from the flooding,\u201d Prof Herlily told ST. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f683331b2a39cbb0c46d3fd6fbcf81ca2f333709bd857a3833852a6b3be0d530.webp\")
<\/p>\n
The new \u201crumah panggung\u201d design aims to prevent flood waters from entering the house while also allowing rainwater to be absorbed back into the ground.<\/p>\n
\nST PHOTO: KARINA TEHUSIJARANA<\/p>\n
Ms Kurniasari, 52, who goes by one name, is one such resident. She has lived in her house in the Warung Buncit area of South Jakarta since birth. Her neighbourhood is prone to flooding, and she has found that it has worsened over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has gone from something that happens every five years, to something that happens every year, to something that happens almost every time there is heavy rain,\u201d she told ST. <\/p>\n
Ms Kurniasari finally decided to raise the floor around 10 years ago, after a frightening incident where she was almost electrocuted when flood waters entered the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, I decided to get the floor raised by about 100cm,\u201d she said. At the time, her house was among the highest in the neighbourhood, but over time, more and more of her neighbours have raised their houses too. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re all at about the same height now,\u201d said Ms Kurniasari.<\/p>\n
With flood levels rising every year, she acknowledged that turning her house into a stilt house was probably the best solution. But one major constraint is that she lives with her 85-year-old mother, who is no longer able to manage too many stairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ll leave that problem to the future generation, as I probably won\u2019t be here any more,\u201d she said with a laugh. <\/p>\n
Prof Herlily said that while it was not feasible for the Jakarta administration to enforce or incentivise stilt houses, the city should set a good example by adapting its own buildings and plots to double as catchment areas.<\/p>\n
While the Jakarta administration has begun integrating public parks with water infiltration areas, adapting its buildings has not been a priority so far, as the city has focused more on river widening and dredging. Officials from Jakarta\u2019s Public Works and Spatial Planning Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Mr Aditya echoed the sentiment, saying: \u201cSince Jakarta is a city of water, its buildings should also be water-friendly. If we see water as the enemy, when it rains, it\u2019s like the enemy has arrived. We\u2019re anxious, we can\u2019t sleep and can\u2019t focus on work because we\u2019re always worried whether it will flood.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBut if we see water as part of our life, we\u2019ll welcome it, and we\u2019ll even be happy when it comes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JAKARTA \u2013 Flooding is a perennial problem in Jakarta, and 2026 is no different, with near-constant rain since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-451014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}