Fauzi Bowo says Jakarta needs dike to avoid future tsunami threat

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo says the capital urgently needs to construct a massive dike to safeguard the city against tsunami, since many areas around the city are sinking to below sea level.

Fauzi said the administration had been mulling the proposal, called the Jakarta Coastal Defense Strategy project. He also said the master plan, which the administration was discussing with the Netherlands, was slated to be completed over the next nine months.

“Hopefully we will start building the dike soon after we finish the master plan,” Fauzi said Thursday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

He added that besides its coastal defense function, the dike was also planned as a solution for the city’s water problems.

“We will catch water from the 13 city rivers before it reaches the sea and later use it to meet our clean water needs,” Fauzi said. However, according to Bandung Geology Agency geologist Engkon Kertapati, the capital is not at risk of facing a tsunami.

“Jakarta is very different to Aceh and so far we have received no signal that a Tsunami could hit Jakarta,” he said.

While Engkon agreed with plans to shield the Jakarta coast from possible future threats, he said this must be done using the correct arguments.