World Bank Approves $400 Million to Improve Flood Resilience in Indonesia

Washington: The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a US$400 million loan to support the Government of Indonesia in protecting an estimated 6.3 million people in cities across Indonesia from damage caused by flooding and in bolstering national flood resilience management.
 
The National Urban Flood Resilience Project (NUFReP) will help cities reduce the flood risk by increasing national and city-level flood risk management capacity and through investments for integrated urban flood risk management. 
 
It will also support the government in establishing and operationalizing a national urban flood resilience program.

The NUFReP is expected to benefit residents in the cities of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan Province, Bima in West Nusa Tenggara Province, Gorontalo in Gorontalo Province,  Manado in North Sulawesi Province, Medan in North Sumatra Province, and Semarang in Central Java Province. 
 
"The World Bank stands ready to assist the Indonesian Government in strengthening Indonesia’s long-term flood resilience through integrated investments in disaster preparedness and resilience," said Satu Kahkonen, World Bank Country Director for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, in a media release on Tuesday. 
 
"Through NUFReP, local governments’ capacity to manage floods in urban areas, implement flood risk governance models, and innovative financing mechanisms are expected to improve. To address gender inequalities and build community resilience to floods, the project will also enhance women’s roles in decision making in both policy and subproject design," Kahkonen added.
 
Floods have had caused more damage to people and property in Indonesia than any other natural hazard over the past 20 years, and poor and vulnerable populations, who tend to live in exposed areas, lack access to basic services and fiscal support, and are without financial resources necessary to recover from losses, are usually the hardest hit. 
 
A quarter of Indonesia’s population (76 million people) live in high-risk flood zones, and a majority (42.6 million) are poor. 
 
Floods in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara Province, in 2016 forced more than two-thirds of the city to evacuate and caused more than US$65 million in losses; floods in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan Province, in 2021 affected more than 100,000 people and damaged more than 35,000 homes.
 
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