The City Administrations on Thursday fulfilled its promise to connect the East Flood Canal to the North Coast before the end of 2009.
Thursday saw the perforation of a road previously blocking the canal's way to the sea, in Marunda, North Jakarta.
Several areas of the canal, including the Marunda section, are still only around 15 meters wide - far below the targeted canal width of 75 meters.
"There are six points *along the length of the canal* that are still 15 meters wide. We will begin widening *those areas* on Monday," said Pitoyo Subandrio, the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Bureau chief (under the Public Works Ministry).
He added that the bottlenecks were near Pahlawan Revolusi bridge, H. Miran, Pondok Kopi, Rawa Bebek and Cipinang, in East Jakarta, and at one location in Marunda.
In the present conditions, these areas could not cope with flood water levels.
The construction team has also not yet provided a permanent bridge to replace the road, and a temporary steel bridge currently allows pedestrians and vehicles to cross from one side of the canal to the other.
The 23.5-kilometer canal, costing around Rp 5 trillion (US$5.5 million) to build, and stretching along 13 subdistricts in East and North Jakarta, is one of the administration's main efforts to tackle Jakarta's notorious flooding problems.
It is expected to regulate floodwater from six major rivers, including the Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jatikramat, Cakung and Blencong.
The canal is estimated to reduce flooding across the 270-square-kilometer flood-prone area in the east and north parts of the city.
The canal's construction plan dates back from the New Order era, over 30 years ago.
However, its execution constantly lagged due to land procurement problems.
In 2008, for example, the city administration had targeted to complete its land procurement target, but only managed to acquire 70 percent of the 250 hectares it needed for the project.
One Marunda resident said he had only just been paid compensation for his house and land, which had relinquished to make way for the canal, after the canal had reached the sea.
"They just paid me last night at the Municipality office," Sihombing said.
Pitoyo said that once the canal project is complete, the administration would focus on the construction of a road and a green belt next to the canal.
Thus, more land procurements were expected.
Despite the inadequate width of some of areas of the canal and the temporary bridge, Pitoyo said the administration was correct in pushing ahead with the connection of the canal to the sea.
"The contractors will in fact still be available until June," he said.
According to the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), in 2007 floods caused the capital to suffer losses amounting to Rp 8.8 trillion. (dis)
