City to get reservoirs to prevent floods

Tifa Asrianti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 09/22/2008 12:43 PM  |  City

The city administration has announced plans to dredge rivers and build water reservoirs in Jakarta as part of its efforts to prevent floods.

Wisnu Subagya Yusuf, had of the city's public works agency, on Sunday said his agency had planned the flood prevention program to run until 2012. He added that under the plan, Jakarta would be divided into three zones: east, central and west.

He said that in the eastern zone, several areas, including Sunter, Kelapa Gading and Marunda in North Jakarta, needed an improved water reservoir system.

For the western zone, he went on, his agency had marked out Rawa Buaya, Jelambar, Jelambar Timur, Semanan and Cengkareng in West Jakarta as flood prevention areas. The agency has yet to set any flood prevention areas in the central zone, Wisnu added.

Wisnu said his agency was still working on a detailed plan for the program, but said each zone would get its own flood prevention facilities, including reservoirs.

Denny Talloga from the Jakarta Legislative Council's Commission D, which oversees development, said the three zones would channel water in the areas to the reservoirs. For instance, the eastern zone will manage water in the East Central and East Flood Canals, while the western zone will manage the West Central and West Flood Canals, he said.

"(The program) should consider the direction of the water flow, the location of the planned reservoirs and densely populated areas susceptible to flooding, so we can control floods," he said.

Wisnu said the projects planned for the eastern zone included the construction of the Sunter Timur water reservoirs 1B and 2, as well as the dredging of Cakung River.

"To build the water reservoirs and dredge the river, we need around Rp 3 trillion. The budget may sound astronomical, but flood prevention projects need a lot of money and time because they can't be carried out quickly," Wisnu said.

He added that because the projects could take a few years to complete, the administration would soon set a priority list.

Denny said the city administration would seek help from the government and neighboring administrations to boost flood management projects.

"We can build it as multi-year project, but when will it finish? The government should help, as in the case of the East Flood Canal, where the city administration acquires the land and the government builds it," he said.

Jakarta regularly experiences flooding each year. Experts blame it on the city administration's failure to allocate adequate water catchment areas.

Denny said the city administration would conduct field studies, including checks on the maintenance of existing reservoirs, to find out how many more reservoirs were needed.

"What is the use of having many water reservoirs but not benefiting from them? We will check whether all reservoirs are fully functional," he said.

He added that since dredging required a big budget, the administration would not dredge all the city's rivers at once.

"However, it is the maintenance that matters. The rivers should be re-dredged once every six to 12 months," he said.

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