T

he government is determined to fill in the long-awaited Jatigede Dam in Sumedang, West Java, as soon as 950 families living around the project area have been relocated.

The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry has confirmed that the filling up will take place on Monday.

Ministry secretary-general Taufik Widjoyono said President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo was scheduled to attend the filling of the dam, which was initiated by the country'€™s founding president Sukarno more than 50 years ago.

'€œWe are currently still in the process of relocating around 950 families, who will be moved into temporary shelters until the construction of their new houses is finished,'€ Taufik told reporters on Thursday.

The ministry, Taufik said, needed three more months to complete the families'€™ new homes.

The filling of the reservoir has been postponed several times. Then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expected the dam to be filled in September or October last year, but the government faced opposition from local residents who did not want to leave the area.

Most of the families received compensation and agreed to relocate when construction on the project began in the early 1980s. However, many returned after learning that the project had stalled as a result of financial problems in the 1990s.

The government had allocated around Rp 750 billion (US$53.5 million) in total compensation for around 11,000 families living in the dam area, Taufik went on.

The government previously allocated Rp 190.69 billion in total compensation; however, the amount set for each square meter of land increased and the government decided to compromise with the residents. The amount of compensation for each family was finally set at Rp 122.5 million.

The plan to fill in the dam, however, remained controversial, with opposition from local community figures and activists who said that it would submerge heritage sites and warned that the dam sits on a quake-prone area.

Residents living in areas to be flooded have also voiced concerns. At least 806 families in Cipaku village, Darmaraja district, Sumedang regency, agreed not to accept compensation from the government, asking instead to be relocated sensitively and fairly.

Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono previously said that of the total irrigated agricultural land, which reached 7.1 million hectares nationwide, only 1 million ha were irrigated by dams.

Therefore, the minister said, if Indonesia wanted to realize its food self-sufficiency program, more dams would need to be constructed.

Jatigede Dam, expected to be the country'€™s second-largest, is considered crucial to ensuring Indonesia'€™s food security.

It will have the capacity to retain 979 million cubic meters of water to irrigate around 90,000 hectares of rice fields in Sumedang, Indramayu and Cirebon regencies.

The government has targeted the construction of 49 new dams by 2019. In 2015, a total of 13 new dams are already in the construction stage.