0 Jakarta's Dredging Project to Start With 3 Rivers

The Jakarta city administration will accelerate its plan to normalize the Pesanggrahan, Angke and Sunter rivers as part of efforts to minimize the number of areas inundated by floods in the capital. Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo said the city administration will accelerate the normalization program of 13 rivers to help overcome floods during the rainy season in Jakarta. This year’s priority, however, will be concentrated on the three rivers. He said that the normalization will include dredging and widening the rivers, known collectively by the acronym PAS. 

He added that until the middle of this year, the normalization program will be focused on finalizing administrative matters and land clearance. “The plan is 13 rivers, all will be normalized. But for now, the concentration will be on the major rivers first, which are in Pesanggrahan, Angke and Sunter. We [will] start with land clearance. We have started to make inventories because we want to finish it quickly,” Joko said after visiting flood-prone Pesing Koneng, West Jakarta, on Saturday. However Joko said that he could not solely rely on the river normalization program to overcome the flood problems in Jakarta. 

Instead, he said, he needed to come out with breakthroughs to eliminate the 78 flood points in the capital. One of the breakthroughs he has proposed is to build a Rp 16 trillion ($1.66 billion) multipurpose deep tunnel. He said that Jakarta has been inundated by floods for decades and the condition hasn’t changed because the administration was relying on conventional flood control programs. “We cannot only adopt the conventional ways such as river normalization,” Joko said. “The conventional way will only reduce about 8-12 flood points when we have 78 flood points, that is if the number doesn’t increase. 

“This means that we are competing with the flood points. We have to come out with innovations. That’s why we need the deep tunnel because if we talk about linear [solutions], they will never end.” Previously, Joko visited another flood-prone area Duri Kepa in West Jakarta. Joko immediately went to the Sekretaris River, which had overflowed and inundated the houses around the area a few days before he arrived. Joko climbed the two-meter dam and saw that the river was dirty and full of trash. He checked the condition of the dam, on which construction began two months ago. 

However, construction has been halted due to expiration of the contract period, meaning a new tender must be held to continue the construction. “The construction was halted because the period had expired and a new tender is needed. The height of this dam will be made higher and the river normalization will be carried out,” he said. Joko said that visits to communities such as Duri Kepa were a necessary part of his management process, to see whether or not development programs were running on track and to meet with residents to learn about their needs and aspirations for their community.

source : the jakarta globe