River dredging to begin 2009

Mon, 04/14/2008 11:52 AM  |  City

JAKARTA: The city administration and central government agreed to dredge and rehabilitate 13 rivers around Jakarta in anticipation of annual floods.

"The project will be divided into two stages. Dredging and repairing the embankments and water pumps will begin in 2009 and we expect it will be complete within a year," Deputy Governor Prijanto said Saturday as quoted by official city news portal Beritajakarta.com.

"In the next step, until 2012, the government will increase its human resources capacity for flood mitigation," he said.

During a site inspection of repairs on the Mookervart River (and distribution of tree saplings and biopore drills to Semanan residents) in West Jakarta, Prijanto said a soft loan from the World Bank would be used to fund the project.

"For the project, we are budgeting to use a grant for US$10 million and to borrow $150 million," he said.

Sedimentation from erosion and rubbish thrown into rivers have contributed to the reduction of the rivers' volume capacity, meaning they are more likely to overflow during the rainy season. -- JP

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