Abstrack:
This study concerns urban community experiences and responses to those who lived in the floodplain at Karet Tengsin, Jakarta. They have been dealing with flood disasters and the aftermath of diseases that cause health problems (diarrhea, common cold, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF), pulmonary infection, and skin infection). The aims of this study are to understand the meaning of flood disasters and the aftermath of diseases from the community’s experiences who encounter vulnerabilities frequently, and to know how they respond and strategize in dealing with vulnerabilities. This study uses ethnography’s method with data collected through actor’s approaches.
The results show that flood disasters and the aftermath of diseases have been seen as normal occurrences. When flood disasters occur frequently, the community has strategies in facing the diseases afterward. One of the strategies is using medicinal plants to treat vulnerable diseases. Medicinal plants are available for free in the Karet Bivak cemetery area, in the same neighborhood where the community lives. There are nine types of medicinal plants used for diseases traditionally, such as Jarak (Jatropha curcas L. & Jatropha gossypipolia L.), Saga (Abrus precatorius L), Sente (Alocasia macrorrhiza), Kamboja (Plumeria), Sigsag (Euphorbia tithymaloides), Dadap (Erythrina variegata), Waru (Hibiscus tiliaceus), Jambu biji (Psidium guajava), and Lidah buaya (Aloe vera).
This study concludes that the utilization of medicinal plants in the Karet Bivak cemetery area to treat diseases afterward is one of the community’s cultural coping mechanisms to deal with vulnerability. The culture adjusts to disasters, which are seen as normal occurrences.
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