Situ Gintung Tragedy

Before i get into the Causes of Situ Gintung’s Tragedy I wanted to tell that i feel so condolence for the people or family casualty living at Situ Gintung and all of the people near the Gintung’s lake at Cirendeu. I hope the South Tangerang Cirendeu vilage people to be stable and tolerant for all the victim at Situ Gintung.

About the data of the victim at Situ Gintung disaster still in search because it is always changing day after day until now. The last data about Situ Gintung from yesterday newspaper (Kompas, 01-03-09) 100 people found dead, 100 people missing, 113 people injured, 2 people still in treatment, 450 people go out from Cirendeu. The other damages are house, public facility, cars, and many more.

There are 6 factors why the Situ Gintung’s watershed is broken down:

1. Watershed condition

2. Becomes recreation site

3. Many resident house

4. extreme rainfall

5. Postal site

6. Cutting trees

The Watershed condition is very weak. Because it is build since 1933 until now. 2 years before the tragedy people have already told the government to fix the watershed. The government also has predicted about this situation but no action (maybe because of the money problem and so on) so the watershed becomes broken down. The watershed broke down can be force majeure (something that we cannot predict and happens suddenly), but the fact is we can use the improved technology now and knowing this disaster before it happens.

The recreation site at Situ Gintung causes the content of water reduction. Many resident houses cause the no substantial quality of soil. The postal site also a problem due to the setup rules. Necessarily no house should be near the watershed or around there about > 200 m. That length is called the greenbelt, it means that only trees and other outgrowth in there for protection of Situ Gintung. But the fact is now all of the people are not obeying these rules and suffering the consequences now from this disaster. There should be a tree around the site but the trees are all cut down and become erosion that were fatal for all the people living near the watershed.

The criterion of Operation and Maintenance is not watched carefully & tightly. Suppose that Operation and Maintenance of a watershed should be watched far more detail and more carefully because it is so dangerous. If there is a leak that happens like at Situ Gintung it is very dangerous and it becomes a disaster. We must always check the water setup and must be suitable with the water capacity. If there is more water entering that Situ over the capacity we can know about it from the water leak in the spillway, Head of BPPT, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho sum up that the watershed in the spillway is the weak point of watershed broken down so that the watershed of Situ Gintung should be open wide. This all of the information that are not happening in Situ Gintung (accordance to SBY and Jusuf Kalla and Situ Maintenance people).

Besides we condemn on the governments fault that are not carefully taken care of. The ministry of public job tells that changing of climate change is also one of the factors that cause the Situ Gintung’s watershed to be broken down. (news.okezone.com)

So now that there is a climate change and makes the rainfall in this world differently day after day also at the Situ Gintung,”The ministry of public job Djoko Kirmanto in ITS surabaya campus saids it, Monday (30/3/2009). Situ Gintung can just obtain 1 million cubic of water, and when the waterfalls comes yesterday before the disaster in Situ Gintung, the capacity of water becomes 2 million cubic of water that makes it the watershed to be broke.

Like I said before about the Earth Hour and Nyepi days this thing must be protected also. So its not all of this problem is the government fault but all of us must know about this and always remember this tragedy. The people should not live near the Situ Gintung’s watershed for about > 200m and now the people have already suffer the consequences. So we must be more carefull about this situation in the next day and the to the government to be more anticipate. Cirendeu will be build again starting at May 2009 until September 2009. That's all from me thank you...