T

he government’s failure to quickly respond to residents’ complaints about the poor condition of the Pesanggrahan River dike in Bintaro, South Jakarta, has contributed to the collapse of the dike.

“Last year, we asked the South Jakarta Public Works Subagency to rebuild the dike, but it only patched the leakages at the dike wall,” head of a community unit in Pesanggrahan subdistrict Joko Tursino told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“The dike is very unstable now, the wall near our houses shakes sometimes, we worry it will collapse again as heavy rain could hit at anytime,” he said.

A part of the dike collapsed Tuesday, causing 3-meter-high floods to hit thousands of people in two community units, including those living in the Civil Servant Cooperative Union (IKPN) housing complex.

Joko said that in his community unit, more than one thousand people were hit by the flood. Kumala Siregar, head of another community unit in IKPN complex, said that it affected about 900 people in his neighborhood. The area is known to be hit by floods at least once a year.

The most recent one, however, was much worse as a 23-meter part of the dike’s 450-meter wall, known by locals as the Madrasah dike, collapsed. This was not the first time the dike wall collapsed.
Previously about 7-meters fell following the burst of Situ Gintung Dam in Cireundeu, Tangerang, which killed one hundred people, on March 27, 2009.

Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said Wednesday during his visit to the location together with city Governor Fauzi Bowo, that the government would repair the damaged part soon before a new dike was built. However, community unit head Joko said the government should immediately rebuild the whole dike. “If there is no large-scale upgrading, I’m afraid that another part of the dike will collapse sooner or later,” he said, adding that parts of the dam that burst were only held by sacks of sand.

A water pump keeper at Madrasah dike, Komaruddin, said that once every two or three months the dike leaked. “The public works agency is quite fast in responding to the report [of any leakage]. However, the dam itself is old, it was build in the 1980s and it needs more than patching,” he said.

Komaruddin said that the dam was weak because it was made of river stones, instead of stronger material such as what formed the 400-meter IKPN dike, located next to Madrasah dike.

South Jakarta Public Works Agency acting chairman Yayat told the Post he admitted the dam was old and there had not been any large scale upgrading since then. However, he said the government would soon repair the collapsed part of the dike, conduct 2-kilometer river dredging activities and rebuild the whole dike. Even though the Madrasah dike would be repaired, residents were still concerned.

“It never entered my mind that the dike could collapse like this. At first I thought it was a tsunami,” Darsitin, 54, a victim, said.

He said he and other residents had become used to the dike’s leakages, but did not think it would collapse. Darsitin, who lives next to the dike wall, said there was seepage every time the water level was high.

Another victim, Tati Suprianti, was forced to stay at a mosque because her house was full of litter and mud. “I’m going to move from this place soon because I’m afraid another flood will hit again,” she
said. (not)