T

he administration is pressing ahead with its plan to normalize the Pluit Reservoir in Pluit, North Jakarta, with the demolition of 200 houses on the eastern side of the reservoir.

Rustam Effendi, the newly installed North Jakarta mayor, said the demolition had gone well, without resistance from local residents, as all of the 200 families had been relocated to Muara Baru rusunawa (low-cost rental apartment) in Penjaringan, North Jakarta.

'€œToday we demolished empty makeshift houses because all the families have moved to the rusunawa that we prepared earlier,'€ Rustam told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He added that the authorities had also helped the families to move their household appliances and other personal items on Friday.

The demolition of 200 houses on Saturday by 500 officers from the Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), the National Police and Indonesian Military, was the first demolition carried out by the city administration in the Pluit Reservoir this year.

The relocation was part of the administration'€™s revitalization project of reservoirs and rivers in the capital.

In May 2013, the administration relocated 17,000 families that had made 20 hectares (ha) of the 80 ha Pluit Reservoir their home, running a water catchment rehabilitation program around the dam.

Rustam said North Jakarta would continue the revitalization project by relocating 1,600 more families from the dam'€™s eastern side when it found more rusunawa to accommodate them.

He added that he would look for more rusunawa because there were only spaces for 400 families in Muara Baru rusunawa, while the city needed to relocate 1,600 families.

'€œWe hope they leave their houses voluntarily, but if it'€™s not possible we will look for a place to relocate them,'€ Rustam continued.

Meanwhile, Heryanto, coordinator of Jakarta rivers and reservoirs normalization, said Saturday'€™s relocation was a follow up after each of the 200 families received keys to their rusunawa units that had been allocated a day earlier.

He added that the administration would now start to dredge the mud from the east side of the reservoir with 15 excavators and two mud dredgers that would deepen the reservoir from 3 to 6 meters.

'€œIf we don'€™t demolish the houses before we dredge the area, we'€™re afraid the houses will collapse,'€ Heryanto said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Heryanto said further that after the 2,000 families from the area had been relocated, the administration would normalize the dam as soon as possible.

The administration has pledged Rp 380 billion (US$30 million) from the 2015 provincial budget plan to continue the construction of a number of rusunawa.

Jakarta Housing Agency head Ika Lestari said the funds would be used to build eight rusunawa in various locations: Rawa Buaya and KS Tubun in West Jakarta, Semper and Cakung in North Jakarta, Rawa Bebek, Pinus Elok and Jatinegara in East Jakarta and one in Bekasi, West Java.

She added that from the eight locations, the city administration expected 2,500 units to be ready this year.

'€œWe are trying to meet our target,'€ she said as quoted by tempo.co.

Rusunawa construction projects are being taken forward under Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama'€™s leadership. He has repeatedly said that he will continue evictions for '€œthe sake of the city'€.

He blamed the squatters for the city'€™s annual flooding, saying that because the rivers were surrounded by illegal homes, they could not function properly as water catchment areas.