OREANDA-NEWS. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $109 million loan to support flood risk management for communities in the Banten and Maluku provinces of Indonesia to enhance preparation for future threats while ensuring infrastructure meets high standards of resilience.

The Flood Management in Selected River Basins Sector project will finance interventions at Cidanau-Ciujung-Cidurian river basin territory of Banten Province in Java, and the Ambon-Seram river basin territory of Maluku Province in the country’s east.

“The project will help these communities cope with flooding by coupling infrastructure investment with supporting measures such as flood risk management plans,” said Eric Quincieu, a Water Resources Specialist at ADB’s Southeast Asia Department. “The aim is to reduce the economic and social damage from floods, with a strong focus on raising the understanding in communities about the specific threats they face.”

Floods have become more frequent in Indonesia in recent decades. Between 2003 and 2015, floods affected an average 1.58 million annually, destroyed or damaged 223,000 homes and inundated 168,000 hectares of crops. Climate change is expected to exacerbate flood risks through more intense rainfall and rising sea levels.

The project will help affected areas develop flood risk management plans that integrate technological assessments of risk with “software” approaches to boost resilience. Support will be given to river basin management organizations to prepare flood-resilient infrastructure and develop measures against problems such as sediment transport.