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Hundreds to be evicted in Surakarta for reservoir
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Hundreds of families living on the Pepe and Anyer riverbanks will be evicted starting March by the Surakarta administration to make way for a reservoir. (thejakartapost.com/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Hundreds of people living on the Pepe and Anyar riverbanks in Surakarta, Central Java, will be evicted to make way for a reservoir.
They will be moved to low-cost apartments near the city dump, Putri Cempo in Mojosongo, about 20 kilometers from their homes.
The Surakarta administration plans to build a reservoir as part of flood mitigation measures in the northern part of Surakarta. The area floods whenever the two rivers, tributaries of the larger Bengawan Solo River, overflow.
“Approximately 1,000 people or 300 families will be relocated. Riverbanks are not for settlement but are water catchments, so they have to move,” Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi “Rudy” Rudyatmo said Monday.
Most of the residents understand the need for relocation but object to the alternative, which they claim is too far from their workplaces.
“I drive a rickshaw near the Tirtonadi Terminal. If I move to Mojosongo I will have to find another job,” said Ngatman, 47.
Sunarti, 45, said she worked as an onion peeler at Legi Market. “My income is only Rp 25,000 a day. If I move I will have to spend about Rp 10,000 for public transportation. But I don’t have a choice because my home will become a reservoir,” she said.
A Surakarta administration official, Toto Jayanto, said evictions would start in March. So far, 74 low-cost rental apartments (rusunawa), each measuring 24 square meters, had been readied, he said.
Others would be bigger, such as 30 to 36 sq m, he said. (evi)
