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Wajo Dam to support S. Sulawesi food security
The Paselloreng Dam in Wajo regency in South Sulawesi, the construction of which is expected to be completed in February 2019, will support food security in the province, the government has said
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he Paselloreng Dam in Wajo regency in South Sulawesi, the construction of which is expected to be completed in February 2019, will support food security in the province, the government has said.
Progress on the construction of the dam has reached 73.3 percent.
With a capacity of 138 million cubic meters, the Paselloreng Dam can support at least 7,000 hectares of rice fields, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Tuesday in an official statement made available to The Jakarta Post.
“The dam can water 7,000 hectares of rice fields. We are developing dams to irrigate more rice fields so we can come closer to achieving food self-sufficiency,” the President said in the statement.
In comparison, the Raknamo Dam in East Nusa Tenggara, which was completed last year, has a capacity of 14 million cubic meters. Paselloreng Dam’s capacity will be nine times that of Raknamo.
“The Paselloreng Dam is enormous,” he said, adding that it consisted of 365 ha of state-owned land in addition to 1,849.88 ha of land which would be acquired.
Out of 1,849.88 ha, 681.98 ha or 36.87 percent has been acquired. The remaining area, which would be used as a reservoir, was in the payment process.
“We hope to complete the payment in October,” the President said.
The construction project is a joint operation between state-owned construction firm PT Wijaya Karya and Kalla Group-owned PT Bumi Karsa with a value of Rp 736 billion (US$51.23 million). The supervisory consultants are Bandung-based PT Mettana and PT Raya Konsult, as well as Makassar-based PT Timur Konsultan with a supervision contract value of Rp 37.5 billion.
Construction of the dam commenced in June 2015, and the February 2019 target for completion was faster than the initial schedule, which was July 2019.
The Paselloreng Dam will control the water of the Gilireng River. Other than irrigation, the dam can also provide water to houses in four districts in Wajo regency at 305 liters per second, in addition to controlling floods and producing 0.8 megawatt (MW) of hydropower.
Other than Paselloreng, the government was also completing two other dams, namely Karalloe in Gowa regency and Pamukkulu in Takalar regency. The three dams have a capacity of 256 cubic meters.
According to Public Works and Housing Ministry data, the development on the Karalloe Dam began in December 2013 and has reached 54 percent completion. The dam, which has a capacity of 40 million cubic meters, is targeted to be completed in 2019.
Meanwhile, the Pamukkulu Dam will have a maximum capacity of 78 million cubic meters. Construction started in November 2017 and has reached 2.8 percent completion.
This year, the Public Works and Housing Ministry also plans to begin construction of the Jenelata Baja Dam in Gowa. The dam will have a capacity of 237 million cubic meters, which is bigger than Paselloreng.
Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said the dam project was aimed at boosting South Sulawesi’s potential as a food producer. The province has rice fields spanning 300,000 ha.
“South Sulawesi has rice fields that are bigger than 3,000 ha, which is hardly available in other regions. We will increase productivity with continuous water supply from the dams,” he said.
He added that only 11 percent out of the 7.3 million ha of rice fields in Indonesia had irrigation.
In 2016, Indonesia had 230 dams with a capacity of 12.6 billion cubic meters. The government under President Jokowi plans to build 65 dams, which consists of expanding 14 existing dams and developing 49 new dams from 2014 to 2019.
“The 65 dam projects will increase irrigation coverage from 11 to 20 percent [of the total rice field area],” he said.
