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Jakarta Council Speaker urges Anies to focus on work
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Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan checks on victims of the collapsed Jati Padang dam in South Jakarta after the city was hit by heavy rains on Dec. 11. (Antara/-)
J
akarta Council Speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi has urged Governor Anies Baswedan to focus on his work and not get side tracked building his personal image, following the chaos caused by flooding in several locations in Jakarta on Monday.
Prasetio said on Tuesday that Anies and his deputy Sandiaga Uno were not responsive enough in their handling of the floods as it was common knowledge that extreme weather and heavy rains would occur until February next year.
“[Anies should] stop focusing on his image and speaking of unimportant things. Let’s focus on fixing Jakarta,” Prasetio said as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.
Prasetio added that he was surprised to see the city's major thoroughfares and the Dukuh Atas underpass in Central Jakarta become inundated with water.
Earlier, Anies blamed the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) transportation development projects for being the cause of the flooding, arguing that the construction of the projects had obstructed waterways.
According to Prasetio, funds for the Jakarta Water Resources Agency in the 2018 city draft budget reached Rp 3.2 trillion (US$235.5 million) while funds for stationer pumps, mobile pumps, water gates, pump building and the like was Rp 21.9 billion.
In the 2017 revised city budget, the allocation for the agency was Rp 1.5 trillion, while funds for pumps and supporting infrastructure reached Rp 25.9 billion.
Prasetio said he wondered why broken pumps and dirty waterways had caused the floods.
“I cannot accept [Anies'] argument that the MRT, LRT and road improvement projects caused the flooding,” he said. (wnd)
