0 South Korea Offers to Help Jakarta With Flood Mitigation

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo on Friday said that his administration would focus on implementing projects conducted by South Korea in the city as soon as possible, to help deal with the capital's flooding and traffic issues. "We want to be more focused on concretizing projects conducted by Korea in Jakarta, both those related to flood handling or traffic congestions," Joko said, after meeting with South Korea's Ambassador to Indonesia, Kim Yeong Seon, in Jakarta on Friday. 

Indonesia and South Korea signed a partnership in December to complete a $10 million restoration project for Jakarta's heavily polluted Ciliwung river. Rp 10 billion ($1.04 million) of the funds will come from the Indonesian government, and $9 million will be a grant from South Korean authorities. Joko said that the banks of the Ciliwung river would be straightened and lined with sheet piles. "We will start this around June. It will be designed in April and in June it can start on the field," Joko explained. 

Kim said that South Korea would officially hand the government flood relief assistance on Monday, adding that he had also offered an invite to city officials to visit South Korea to learn about how the country deals with floods. "I will invite Indonesian officials dealing with flood disaster mitigation to come to Korea, so that they can see how flood mitigation works in Korea because we also have a lot of rain and we are quite experienced in this," Kim said during the meeting on Friday. 

He vowed that South Korea was committed to enhancing cooperations with Jakarta, especially to deal with the floods and traffic congestion. The ambassador added that Korea would build an environmentally-friendly pure cell power plant in Ancol, North Jakarta. "We are currently building that power plant and it may be soon completed. We will be able to produce electricity for Jakarta," Kim said, adding that he hoped it would be done in two to three months. In a fuel cell power plant, the chemical energy from fuel, most commonly hydrogen, natural gas and methanol, is converted into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent.

source : the jakarta globe