There is a need for integrated water resource management to deal with the flooding in Jakarta, and a search must be conducted for alternative sources of clean water, that will avoid interference with the land stability and prevent the sea level from rising.

"The management of integrated water catchment is also important on a regional basis," Ravesteijn said.

Inter-basin canal management for transferring excess water from the west of Java, which is wet, to the east, which is dry, was introduced by Van Blommestein for increasing the volume of water storage in the basin rivers, especially in the Ciliwung and for building small reservoirs in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.

However, Ravesteijn said that the application of engineering alone will prove to be insufficient in answering the problem of flooding in Jakarta. "The asset management for the maintenance of the sluices or floodgates and keeping the water constantly clean and waste free needs to be done with the help of an institutional strategy," he noted then added that public resistance and differences in political points of view must be addressed properly by involving all stakeholders through a top-down management style and through public initiatives.

Eka Budiarto, a doctoral student at TU Delft`s Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, said every successive government or leaders in Indonesia at the national or local level have almost always changed the policies dealing with this problem, which has rendered a lot of the work incomplete. "Many plans have been proposed to address flooding in Jakarta, but nothing has been accomplished. I think this is because the policies are constantly modified or changed," he said.

Budiarto also suggested the creation of a guide book that contains a description of all possible solutions proposed till date for solving the problem of flooding in Jakarta, which can help in chalking out a detailed plan and implementing it effectively in the field for achieving the expected results.

"The book should contain an index, listing out the various quantitative parameters of the flooding and summarize the problem solving alternatives proposed by various sources and stakeholders," he stated. 

"Anyone who wants to determine new solutions for the problem can refer to the guidelines in the book," he explained.

Budiarto added that in order to maintain consistency, the preferred solution should be regulated so that it does not deviate too far from the modified strategy.

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