‘Impoldering Indonesia’: Of Universal Water Technology and Unfinishedness in Semarang

Abstract

This article interrogates the social life and afterlife of a Dutch flood control project, or polder, in Semarang, Indonesia. While arguing that there is no such thing as a typical Dutch polder, the article shows how Dutch attempts to claim universal hydraulic knowledge allow partners of a bilateral development project to discuss the sociotechnical contours of an anti-flooding project and legitimise urgent infrastructural intervention. Only upon failing to implement the original polder design and achieve the main project target—involving local residents in bottom-up maintenance and operation—Indonesian and Dutch actors question each other’s expertise and understanding of the problem, blaming both Dutch and Indonesian political culture for failure. Despite remaining unfinished, the polder continues to do important work: people in the Indonesian government claim that it makes coastal neighbourhoods resilient to climate change, while Dutch actors frame it as an initial experiment. The article ends with a discussion of how failed attempts at universalising technology still pave the way for economic exchange. The incomplete polder played a significant role in selling Dutch expertise to flood-plagued cities in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, which suggests an ‘impoldering’ of hydrological knowledge in the age of global flooding.