When the Weather Turns into a Hydro‑Thrills Catastrophe
It was a sunny day in Makassar, the bustling port city on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island. Suddenly, the sky opened like a pressurized water‑rocket, and within a few hours the streets—and her home—turned into a makeshift swimming pool.
How Ms. Hasriani’s Family Faced the Flood
- Late last month, rain poured for an entire day.
Water crept up to the knees of the modest house she lives in, which is only a meter off the ground. - By the next hour, the water had risen faster than her coffee mug, threatening to capsize the whole family inside.
- “It wasn’t the rain that struck me,” Ms. Hasriani, 30, joked, pointing a finger at a nearby dam called Bili‑Bili that had been built in 1998 to keep the flood waters at bay.
When a Dam Decides to Throw a Surprise Party
The 15‑kilometre‑away Bili‑Bili dam burst in late January after a single monstrous rainstorm. People across the region were left in a surreal state—picture a giant, angry wave of mountain runoff that seemed to have one mission: swallow every house that didn’t bother to build an umbrella.
Behind the dam’s dramatic exit
- Years of forest clearing in the mountain valleys had left loose earth that slid downhill like unrestrained toddlers carrying the cement.
- Those loose chunks lobbied their way into the dam’s reservoir, causing a huge accumulation of silt and a sudden displacement of water.
The Aftermath
Over 80 people lost their lives, and more than 13,000 residents were displaced—making this the worst flooding incident in South Sulawesi in over fifteen years.
- Thousand of hectares of rice fields vanished under the jacked‑up water, leaving farmers staring at an empty field that used to be golden.
- In the mountain slopes, the unanchored straight‑away soil triggered massive landslides that demolished homes and severed vital bridge connections.
- In the Gowa district, a community head called Mr. Ikhsan Parawansa noted that 56 families suffered a loss of household items that were still pile‑up, and many of those who had to evacuate had yet to return.
Why Nobody Caught This Storm Coming?
Although the disaster response team was shocked to see the dam fail after just one shower, provincial officials and environmental researchers emphasize that predictive warning signs were missing. The dam’s 20-year existence had not prepared locals for an unexpected flood of such magnitude.
That afternoon, Makassar’s residents had to learn that even a “well‑planned” dam can have a change of mind when the earth’s own tides roar from the sky.
When Rain Turns Into Mayhem: The 2019 Makassar Floods
On January 24, 2019, the city of Makassar was hit by a deluge that turned streets into rivers and homes into temporary shelters. As the waters rose, Indonesian rescuers scrambled to evacuate residents, but the scene also raised a pressing question: how much do we shut our eyes to the planet’s changing climate?
The Storm
Imagine a dam built to stand for a century suddenly giving way. Governor Nurdin Abdullah, who stepped into office in September, was quick to call out the “natural” label that some in the media had slapped on the disaster.
“That dam was intended to last 100 years,” he declared.
The floods were not just a one‑off event; they were a culmination of heavier rains, swollen rivers and, crucially, shifting landscapes that had lost the trees which once held things together.
Who’s To Blame?
Abdullah, a forestry lecturer before turning governor, blamed human actions for turning modest rainfall into a calamity.
“There’s a lot of mining and land conversion that increases silting and fills the rivers with dirt,” he explained.
When forests get chopped or mined for rock and sand, you lose the natural grit that keeps soil from washing into waterways. Fast.”
Logs and Litter
- River banks that used to be forested are now porched with rice paddies, homes and, sometimes, nearby mining sites.
- Miners dig too close to sand pockets, slicing the ground just before a landslide can happen.
- By 2023, only about one‑fifth of the province’s land remains forested, according to a doctoral student, Ms Putri Nurdin, whose father is the governor.
She stated, “Where there should have been forest, I saw rice fields and housing,” highlighting how the changing landscape has altered hydrology. “There were landslides all along the road,” she added.
Governance Gears Up
- Re‑inspection of mining permits and tighter enforcement of environmental regulations.
- Funding from the central government to build a second flood‑prevention dam near Bili‑Bili.
- Public education campaigns; tree‑planting programmes run by government and NGOs.
Abdullah, who campaigned on a pro‑conservation platform, vowed that if a piece of land is cleared for mining or palm oil, it should immediately be restored with trees. “If the forest is still healthy and there’s rain for two hours, the river is still dry,” he said. “But now if there’s rain for two hours, it definitely floods.”
Building Back Up
Recovery is on people’s front lines. In Gowa district, a trauma centre and a shelter have been set up for those stranded by the water. Mr Parawansa, overseeing the most affected area, admitted it’s still unclear why the disaster was so extreme.
Real Voices
Ms Hasriani, who owned a row of shops that sold rice and petrol, lost every item that could have been saved. “We just found high ground as quickly as we could,” she said. “We couldn’t save anything.”
The Environmental Ministry has announced nearly 200 billion rupiah (about S$19.5 million) in recovery funds to help rebuild homes, shops and infrastructure.
In a nutshell: the floods hit hard, the blame game is complex, and the way forward lies in better land stewardship—time to get our forests back and our dams right.
