In deep trouble

深陷困境

Climate change is forcing Asian cities to rethink their flood defences

气候变化迫使亚洲城市重新考虑防洪措施

Climate issue: Expensive engineering is no match for Mother Nature

气候问题:昂贵的工程无法与大自然抗衡

Sep 21st 2019 | JAKARTA AND SINGAPORE

Sep 21st 2019 | 雅加达（印度尼西亚首都）和新加坡

IN NORTH JAKARTA, not far from a quayside where workers unload frozen mackerel, a derelict building stands a metre deep in murky water. The warehouse was flooded in 2007, after torrential rains and a tidal surge submerged half the city under nearly four metres of water, displacing half a million people and causing $550m in damage. The building has remained inundated and abandoned ever since—barring the hardy soul who seems to be camping on the first floor, aided by a rowing boat.

在雅加达北部，离工人们卸载冷冻鲭鱼的码头不远处，一座废弃的建筑矗立在一米深的浑水中。2007年，暴雨和海啸将半个城市淹没在近4米深的水下，导致50万人流离失所，造成5.5亿美元的损失，仓库被淹没。从那以后，这栋建筑就一直被淹没和遗弃——除了那些在一艘划艇的帮助下，依旧扎营的顽强的灵魂。

词汇

Quayside/  码头周围地区，码头边

Mackerel/鲭（产于北大西洋）；马鲛鱼

Derelict/废的，被弃置的，破旧的

 

Floods have always plagued Jakarta, but in recent years they have become more severe. Many other cities in Asia are menaced by the same phenomenon. As the planet heats up, sea levels are rising. Heavy rainstorms are also becoming more frequent and tropical cyclones more intense. And Asia’s coastal cities are growing, even as the risk of flooding increases. The number of people living in flood plains in Asia is expected to more than double between 2000 and 2060, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). As cities grow, they exacerbate flood-risk by covering ground that would once have absorbed water with concrete and asphalt. The amount and value of the property at risk also grows. Thirteen of the 20 cities projected to have the biggest increases in annual losses caused by flooding between 2005 and 2050 are in Asia.

洪水一直困扰着雅加达，但近年来变得更加严重。亚洲许多其他城市也面临着同样的现象。随着地球变暖，海平面正在上升。暴雨也越来越频繁，热带气旋也越来越强烈。尽管洪水风险增加，亚洲沿海城市仍在发展。据亚洲开发银行(ADB)预测，在2000年至2060年间，亚洲洪泛区的人口数量将增加一倍以上。随着城市的发展，它们用混凝土和沥青覆盖了原本会吸水的土地，从而加剧了洪水风险。风险资产的数量和价值也在增长。2005年至2050年间，预计20个城市中有13个城市因洪水造成的年度损失增幅最大，而这些城市位于亚洲。

词汇

Plague/困扰

Exacerbate/使加剧；使恶化

Asphalt/沥青；柏油

 

Jakarta exemplifies the typical response to rising tides and swelling rains. Though Akuarium, a neighbourhood of shanties, is on the coast, it is impossible to see the sea from its dirt streets. A three-metre-tall sea wall stands in the way. For centuries Jakarta’s authorities have dispatched engineers to hold back the rising waters. In the 18th century they built flood canals; in the 19th century, retention ponds. After the floods of 2007 they raised the existing 30km-long sea wall, widened and dredged the canal system and dug more retention ponds. The idea that the water would recede if only nature could be tamed still motivates Indonesia’s planners. After another disastrous flood in 2013, the president of the day instructed his ministers to be bolder. The result was the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD), a $40bn mega-project consisting of a 25km outer sea wall and 17 artificial islands which would seal off Jakarta Bay.

雅加达例示了对涨潮和暴雨的典型反应。虽然Akuarium【有“鱼缸”的意思】，一个棚户区，驻扎在海岸上，从它的肮脏的街道上是不可能看到海面的。一道三米高的海堤挡住了去路。几个世纪以来，雅加达当局一直派遣工程师控制不断上涨的水位。在18世纪，他们建造了防洪运河;在19世纪，他们建造了蓄水池。2007年洪水过后，他们将现有的30公里长的海堤抬高，拓宽并疏浚了运河系统，并挖了更多的蓄水池。只要大自然能被驯服，海水就会退去的想法仍然激励着印尼的规划者。在2013年另一场灾难性的洪水之后，时任印度尼西亚的总统指示他的部长们要更加大胆。其结果是国家首都沿海综合开发(NCICD)，这是一个耗资400亿美元的大型项目，包括一个25公里长的外海堤和17个将封锁雅加达湾的人工岛。

词汇

Dredge/（用挖泥船等）疏浚；（用拖捞网等）捞取

 

The plan was controversial because of its huge cost, the damage it would do to the maritime ecosystem in the enclosed bay and the fact that it did not deal with a significant cause of flooding in Jakarta: subsidence. Though the sea is rising by 0.8cm a year, parts of northern, coastal Jakarta are sinking by 25cm a year, according to Heri Andreas, a geologist at the Bandung Institute of Technology. At least 40% of residents tap into aquifers, either because they are not connected to mains water or, if they are, because their supply is unreliable and dirty. As they drain the water from under their feet, the soil is compressed. Forty percent of Jakarta is now below sea level. This means that water in the drainage system that would otherwise empty into the bay remains trapped in the city. And as Jakarta sinks, it is dragging its dykes down with it.

这项计划备受争议，因为它耗资巨大，会对封闭海湾的海洋生态系统造成破坏，而且没有解决雅加达洪水的一个重要原因: 地层下陷。万隆理工学院(Bandung Institute of Technology)地质学家赫里安德里亚斯(Heri Andreas)表示，尽管海平面每年上升0.8厘米，但雅加达北部沿海的部分地区正以每年25厘米的速度下沉。至少有40%的居民使用含水层，要么是因为他们没有连接到自来水管道，要么是因为供水不可靠且污染严重。当它们把脚下的水排干时，土壤就被压紧。雅加达现在有40%的地区低于海平面。这意味着原本排入海湾的排水系统中的水仍然被困在城市里。随着雅加达下沉，堤坝也随之下沉。

词汇

Maritime/海运的，航海的

Dyke/堤

 

Building the plants and pipes to supply treated water is expensive and time-consuming, however, and the result is hidden out of sight. The NCICD plan, in contrast, would have sculpted 1,000 hectares of reclaimed land into a new waterfront city in the shape of a garuda, a mythical bird that is the symbol of Indonesia. “By developing North Jakarta, the project promises to [fulfil] the world-class city aspirations of Indonesia’s political elites,” writes Emma Colven of the University of Oklahoma. “People want to see visible infrastructure,” says Srinivasan Ancha of the ADB.

然而，建造工厂和管道来供应经过处理的水是昂贵且费时的，而且这项工作的成效不易被人们发觉。相比之下，NCICD的计划则是将1000公顷的填海造地塑造成一个新的海滨城市，形状像鹰，一种神话中的鸟，是印度尼西亚的象征。俄克拉荷马大学（University of Oklahoma）的艾玛•科尔文（Emma Colven）写道:“通过开发雅加达北部，该项目有望实现印尼政治精英对世界级城市的抱负。”亚洲开发银行的Srinivasan Ancha说:“人们希望看到有形的基础设施。”

词汇

Treated/已处理过的

 

In August the government signalled a change of tack. It announced plans to clean Jakarta’s public water supply and connect the entire city to it in an effort to stop groundwater extraction. The NCICD plan has also been revised. The sea wall will no longer enclose the bay, and the artificial islands have been scrapped, although 2,000 hectares of land will still be reclaimed for development. The cost has fallen by half.

今年8月，政府发出了改变策略的信号。他宣布了清洁雅加达公共供水系统的计划，并将整个城市与之连接起来，以阻止地下水的开采。NCICD计划也已修订。海堤将不再包围海湾，人工岛屿也已废弃，尽管仍将开垦2000公顷土地用于开发。但成本下降了一半。

 

Jakarta is not the only Asian city to get cold feet about big engineering schemes in recent years, and to embrace cheaper flood-control measures. The most notable convert is Singapore, which is no stranger to monumental waterworks. It recently completed a vast underground retention pond at a cost of S$227m ($164m), a cathedral of concrete buttresses fed and drained by pipes you could drive a car through. The city is so proud of Marina Barrage, a system of huge pumps and nine 27-metre-long hydraulic gates to stop the business district flooding, that it has turned the S$226m facility into a tourist attraction. Over the past decade it has spent a total of S$2.4bn on drains. Yet as the tiny city-state runs out of space for colossal new structures, and as ever more torrential storms threaten to overwhelm even the new, improved drainage network, Singapore has had to rethink the way it manages storm water.

近年来，雅加达并不是唯一一个对大型工程项目望而却步的亚洲城市，它还采取了更廉价的防洪措施。最引人注目的转变是新加坡，它对大型自来水厂并不陌生。它最近建成了一个耗资2.27亿新元(合1.64亿美元)的巨大地下蓄水池，这是一座由混凝土支撑的大教堂，你可以开车通过管道将其填满和排水。滨海湾拦河坝(Marina Barrage)是新加坡的骄傲，它是一个由巨大的水泵和9个27米长的液压闸门组成的系统，用来阻止商业区的洪水泛滥。在过去10年里，新加坡在排水方面总共花费了24亿新元。然而，由于这个小小的城市国家已经没有足够的空间建造巨大的新建筑，而且越来越多的暴雨甚至有可能淹没新的、经过改善的排水网络，新加坡不得不重新思考其管理暴雨水的方式。

词汇

Monumental/非常大的；重要的；意义深远的

Cathedral/大教堂

buttresses/桥墩

Hydraulic/液压的；水力的；水力学的

 

In 2006 Singapore launched a scheme to increase the city’s absorption capacity by natural means, by converting canals and reservoirs into streams and lakes and by creating wetlands and other spaces designed to flood. Swamps, after all, can absorb potentially ruinous floods, while mangrove forests can protect cities near the coast from storm surges. Maintaining them is much cheaper than building dykes. Singapore completed 75 projects to mimic such natural flood defences between 2010 and 2018. The scheme, which also helps to harvest rainwater, is the first of its kind in the tropics. But the rest of Asia, with far less to spend on colossal flood defences, will surely follow suit.

2006年，新加坡启动了一项计划，通过将运河和水库改造成河流和湖泊，以及创建湿地和其他设计用于防洪的空间，通过自然方式提高城市的吸收能力。毕竟，沼泽可以吸收潜在的毁灭性洪水，而红树林可以保护沿海城市免受风暴潮的侵袭。维护它们比建造堤坝要便宜得多。新加坡在2010年至2018年期间完成了75个类似的天然防洪工程。该计划还有助于收集雨水，而且是热带地区的第一个此类计划。但是亚洲的其他国家，由于没有那么多的钱来建造巨大的防洪设施，肯定会效仿。

词汇

Reservoir/水库

Mangrove/红树林