Issue: Dam collapses after less than a year

June 24, Online

A dam worth Rp 24.6 billion (US$2.59 million) used for irrigating rice paddies in Pedanda, Mamuju Utara regency, West Sulawesi, collapsed less than a year after its completion due to poor construction.

“We question the quality of construction work that was put into this dam. A lot of state money was spent building it,” Aksan Yamby, a Mamuju Utara lawmaker, said on Sunday.

 The broken dam, Aksan said, was a huge loss for the country even before the public had reaped the dam’s benefits.

“We suspect that the contractor responsible for this project didn’t build the dam strong enough, which is why it collapsed so easily under constant river pressure,” Askan said.

Aksan called on law enforcers to investigate the circumstances behind the dam’s collapse.

Your comments:

In developed countries, engineering and construction supervision is usually done either by the responsible government itself, by independent responsible consultants and/or by the contractor(s) under supervision by the same government/independent consultant(s).

That means that a failsafe system is in place, although admittedly, unfortunate incidents occasionally might slip through.

In Indonesia, we know that both engineering and construction supervision are threatened corruption and the lack of sufficient and proper supervision.

A key solution to these threats relies in responsible government oversight, provided that the government has the ability to do so.

Responsible and incorruptible staff is also part of the solution.
Jorith Arbier

Fortunately/unfortunately, our culture and tradition do not require the project manager who built the dam to resign, let alone to commit hara-kiri.
Robby Kaware

Indonesia can’t build dams or bridges successfully; it’s a proven fact. The government is still covering up for the company that built the collapsed Kutai Bridge in East Kalimantan. Indonesia should contract internationally recognized engineers for future projects.

Unfortunately, qualified Indonesian engineers are mostly employed overseas because they are fed up with sub-standard conditions in their own country.
Baz

Aksan called on law enforcers to investigate the circumstances behind the dam’s collapse.

I think that we all know how that will turn out.
Sheldon Archer

Jorith, yes, we know. We are tired of hearing how things are done in developed countries. We know those things already.

Stop making the comparisons. The developed countries are in an economic mess anyway.

Indonesia is not there yet, but we are making improvements ... slowly but surely.
Joko