‘More money needed to handle Jakarta floods’

The City Council demanded Governor Fauzi Bowo on Wednesday to allocate more funds to the flood mitigation program.

Council Deputy Speaker Triwisaksana said that more funds were needed to finance massive flood mitigation programs which included projects in 106 flood-prone areas in the city, the dredging of rivers and dams, as well as the procurement of more mobile pumps.

Triwisaksana of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said that the city would need an additional Rp 20 billion (US$2.24 million) on top of the Rp 1.36 trillion budget proposed for the flood mitigation program in the city for 2011.

“[The additional fund] is urgent so that the administration can quickly complete the project in 2011, because the city is facing the potential of having to deal with massive flooding once every five years, probably in 2012,” he said.

The deputy speaker was referring to massive floods that occurred in 2002 and 2007. The next major flooding is expected in 2012.

In 2007, the worst flooding in the city’s history inundated about 70 percent of the city, killing at least 57 people and driving more than 450,000 away from their homes.

Thus far, the city administration is working on 33 spots of the 106 flood-prone areas, allocating Rp 65.69 billion.

For next year, the city administration expects to work on 56 flood-prone areas, leaving the remainder be completed in 2012.

“We expect that with more funds the City administration can complete the whole project in 2011, before the big flood comes. And with the fund, the city administration has to make the best of it,” Triwisaksana said.

Later on Wednesday, the City secretary, Fadjar Panjaitan, said that the city government thought differently about the additional funding.

He said that the City government had done a good job in handling inundation in the 106 areas and the additional Rp 20 billion fund would be better off spent on other projects.

“I believed we have handled problems in the areas well. We will use the additional Rp 20 billion instead to build dikes in the coastal areas to prevent seawater from inundating the areas during high tides,” Fadjar said.

The administration planned to construct the dikes along Jakarta’s coastline in Kamal Muara, Marunda, Cilincing, and Jl. R.E. Martadinata, all in North Jakarta.

Earlier this month, the Council criticized Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, demanding that the Governor do more to solve the city’s worsening flooding problems.

Political factions in the Council said they were pessimistic that Rp 1.36 trillion of the city’s proposed budget of Rp 27.95 trillion would be enough to solve the city’s flooding problems.

The Council considered the city lacked plans to solve the chronic flooding problems under the leadership of Fauzi.

The governor’s proposed budget earmarked funds to buy land for the East Flood Canal project and to build more inspection roads for the canal. The budget also sets up funds for the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI) and the construction of two dams.