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akarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he would personally persuade squatters along the Ciliwung River to relocate by offering them new homes at two apartment blocks in East and South Jakarta.

Jokowi said the relocation was necessary to pave the way for a massive project to dredge the capital’s main waterways.

The governor met on Friday with Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono and Public Housing Minister Djan Faridz to coordinate the relocation plan.

“I will speak directly with the residents. It is one of the Jakarta administration’s tasks in the project,” Jokowi told reporters.

He said he would work hard to persuade the residents to move to the low-cost apartments, which would be offered under a rental payment system. The city was also ready to provide subsidies to help with the rental payments, he said.

“The construction of the apartments will use state budget funds, while the city will help provide the plots of land,” Jokowi said.

The administration is preparing Pasar Rumput market in South Jakarta and an administration office complex in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, for the apartments.

One of the apartment towers will contain 5,000 apartments and the other 1,000 apartments.

The Pasar Rumput market will be merged with the apartment tower, with the lower floors being used by traders. While construction is carried out, the traders will be temporarily moved to nearby Pasar Blora.

The administration office complex will also be turned into an apartment tower with a market on its lowest floor, which will be used by traders relocating from the antique flea market on Jl. Surabaya in Central Jakarta.

Agung said that the central government considered a rental system would be preferable. “It will offer affordable prices to the residents and we can provide subsidies, if needed,” the coordinating minister said.

Agung said the low-income residents already received subsidies for education and health.

The minister said that the Ciliwung revitalization project was supposed to have started in January last year, but the government was facing a number of difficulties at the time, including land procurement.

The government is still deliberating a plan to build another low-cost apartment tower above Manggarai train station in South Jakarta. The revitalization is part of an overall US$190 million (Rp 1.8 trillion) project to build dikes and dredge 11 canals and four reservoirs in five years, which is being financed primarily by a loan from the World Bank.

Thousands of families living along the waterways will be affected by the project, including those along the Upper Sunter Floodway, the Pakin, Kali Besar and Jelakeng rivers, the Krukut and Cideng rivers, the West Flood Canal, the Sunter Utara River and the Sentiong and Sunter rivers.

The Jakarta Urgent Flood Mitigation Project (JUFMP), previously known as the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI), will be implemented jointly by the Public Works Ministry and the Jakarta Public Works Agency.

Both institutions will dredge the Ciliwung-Gunung Sahari, Cengkareng, Sunter, Sentiong, Sunter, Cideng Thamrin, Tanjungan, Angke Bawah, Pakin-Besar-Jelangkeng, Krukut-Cideng and Krukut Lama rivers and the West Flood Canal, and the Melati, Sunter Utara, Sunter Selatan and Sunter Timur III reservoirs.

Altogether, around 67.5 kilometers of water channels and 65 hectares of retention basins will be dredged, restoring them to their original operating capacities. The project will also reinforce about 42 kilometers of embankments.