Resettlement Program as a Mitigation Strategy for Flood in Surakarta

Abstract

The flood that hit Surakarta, Central Java, in 2007 caused tremendous casualties. Around 1.571 housing in several villages surrounding the Bengawan Solo Riverbanks were drowned by the flood. In order to prevent such disaster from occurring again, the local government of Surakarta needed to enact a disaster mitigation policy. One such policy was to relocate residents of the affected villages to Mojosongo. However, such a policy is prone to protest and dissatisfaction from the affected residents. Thus, this research sought to understand how the residents relocated to Mojosongo perceived such a resettlement program. This research adopted a descriptive method with interviews as the data gathering method. This research gathered the opinions of both relocated residents, and the civil servants tasked with the resettlement program. The data was then analyzed using the descriptive-analytic method. The result of this study shows that the resettlement program was deemed successful due to the careful planning of the local government.