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Flood canal faces silting problems
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said the East Flood Canal (BKT) was not a complete solution to the city’s chronic floods, especially now as the canal faced pollution and silt problems
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akarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said the East Flood Canal (BKT) was not a complete solution to the city’s chronic floods, especially now as the canal faced pollution and silt problems.
He said the man-made canal needed support from more infrastructure projects.
“You know [the canal] cannot be used to settle problems in the west. It has to be supported by other components,” he said Friday, referring to the need to build more dams in certain locations, including in Rorotan and Marunda in North Jakarta.
Fauzi said the depth of a number of rivers decreased due to silting and the city was counting on the realization of a massive river dredging project funded by a World Bank loan.
“I ask residents to understand that [the administration] works in stages. It’s not like killing two birds with one stone,” Fauzi said.
He said the Jakarta Urgent Flood Mitigation Project (JUFMP) — previously known as JEDI — was delayed for one and half years since 2009, pending government regulation (PP).
The project is expected to reduce the impact of major floods — such as the 2007 deluge that affected 2.6 million Jakarta residents — by restoring drainage systems in 15 sites by 2014.
The city and the World Bank plan to start the project in 2011.
Fauzi said he expected the capacity of the West Flood Canal to decrease in the next 20 to 30 years, giving rise to plans to build another canal in the west.
The city is also studying a plan to build the first giant sea wall in the country to guard against rising sea water in the next 50 years.
On Thursday, an official from the Public Works Ministry’s Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BBWSCC), Parno, said the BKT could only accommodate a water flow of 100 cubic meters per second, far below the expected capacity of 390 cubic meters per second.
“The bottleneck is caused by the constriction of channel sections due to waste, silting and sedimentation problems,” he told a press conference.
The constriction is in three parts of the canal that are supposed to be between 75 meters and 100 meters wide, in Malaka Sari, Rawa Bebek and Ujung Menteng, all in East Jakarta.
These sections, which altogether are 1,500 meters long, are between 20 meters and 25 meters wide,
Parno said.
Construction of the 23.5-kilometer BKT began in 2003 and the canal became fully operational in 2009, crossing five major waterways in East Jakarta: the Cipinang, Sunter, Buaran, Jati Kramat and Cakung rivers.
The BBWSCC said the BKT helped prevent flooding in an area of around 160 square kilometers, mostly in East Jakarta, including Kelapa Gading, Pulo Gadung and Klender.
In order to solve the constriction problem, the BBWSCC will dredge the three sections next year at an estimated cost of Rp 500 billion (US$56 million). (not)
